EUGENE, OR -- ‘Tis the season for an overabundance of leftovers filling your fridge and freezer, "And unfortunately, much of that food gets tossed in the days and weeks after the holiday," says Lane County Waste Reduction Outreach Coordinator Daniel Hiestand. But he hopes a new campaign will help. "We really want to focus on changing that equation." Hiestand estimates 20% of all purchased food is thrown away, "The average family of four tosses out roughly $2,000 in food every year, in Oregon."

Lane County launched a recipe contest last week, for new ways to use holiday leftovers, "I want to know: what should I do with those mashed potatoes and green beans, and things like that, aside from just eating them plain. You know? There’s some really creative things happening," says Hiestand. "Selfishly, I just want to hear these creative, yummy recipes that folks come up with. We’re going to publish a lot of these on our website EatSmartWasteLess.tips." While drawings for prizes are only open to Lane County residents, the recipes collected will be available for everyone online. Recipes submitted in the first week can be found HERE. 

Hiestand says the goal is to help families save money as food prices move higher, while also protecting the environment. "Saving food is really one of the most powerful things we can do to address the climate crisis. When we toss out food that could be eaten or composted, it emits methane gas in the landfill."

He got the idea from a similar program in Corvallis and hopes other cities will follow, "Gamifying activity and behavioral changes is really important to creating impact. So, if you can kind of make things fun and also educational at the same time, especially when it comes to climate change, I think that really does help."