Category: Food

Cool food before refrigerating

8/28/2026

Save electricity by letting hot food cool before putting it in the fridge so your fridge doesn’t have to work extra hard.

Refrigerators account for a large portion of overall household energy consumption. Before storing your leftovers or pre-cooked food to eat later in the fridge, let it cool down to close to room temperature before putting it in the fridge. This reduces the heat load inside the fridge so it doesn’t have to work as hard, saving energy and money. It also protects food already in the fridge or freezer from being warmed by the addition of hot food raising the temperature. Dividing food such as soup into smaller portions helps it cool faster.

Read more detail here.

Plan menu to use up leftover food

6/26/2026

Reduce food waste by planning your menu around unused ingredients, leftovers, and perishable items in your refrigerator.

The Pennsylvania Resources Council reminds us that good meal planning can help reduce food waste. Unused food wastes the energy and resources expended to produce and transport that food. It also adds to your grocery bill. Be aware of unused ingredients and leftover food and plan your menu to incorporate them. Use up your oldest ingredients before they go bad. Left over ingredients from another recipe? Add them to your next meal. This practice saves on grocery money for you and wasted resources for the planet.

Photo by Susan O'Donnell

Organic food protects birds

6/19/2026

Purchasing organically produced food supports agricultural practices that protect birds.

Birds spend a lot of time in and around agricultural fields. Pesticides and herbicides that are applied to crops can be ingested by birds both directly through berries and seeds that they eat and indirectly by consuming prey such as fish, mammals, and insects that bioaccumulate toxins. Pesticides kill not only the target pests but a broad range of insects that birds rely on for food, especially for their young. Growers that use organic practices are not putting these toxins into the environment that could harm birds or accumulate in the insects and fish that they eat. It also preserves biodiversity and insect food base for birds. A study in Finland found a correlation between organic livestock farming practices and bird abundance. Use your purchasing power to support organic farming practices. Be organic in your own garden as well!

Photo by Susan O'Donnell

Swarthmore Curbside Food Compost Program

2/13/2026

Participate in Swarthmore Borough’s new Curbside Food Compost program to reduce the amount of trash sent to be incinerated. Collected food waste is composted into usable soil.

Swarthmore Borough now offers curbside food-waste collection with pick-up every other week. All residents were provided with a 5-gallon bucket. This program helps divert food scraps from trash incineration and instead keeps it in the cycle by converting it to usable compost. This in turn reduces trash disposal costs. More information about the program, including the pick-up schedule for your area, is on the Swarthmore Borough website, including FAQs with additional information. Some items that you can dispose of through this program include bread, coffee grounds, fruit and vegetable scraps, soiled pizza boxes (stack under the bucket at the curb), wine corks, and spoiled cheese. The program does not accept any meat or containers, even if they are labeled as compostable. A complete list of what items are accepted can be found here. If you need a bucket, contact EZ Composting ([email protected]). The cost of this service, including one 5-gallon bucket, is included in Borough taxes. If you produce more food scraps in two weeks than can be contained in just one bucket, you can order additional buckets directly from EZ Composting for a fee.

Photo by Susan O'Donnell

Regular dinner menus reduce food waste

1/30/2026

Predictable theme nights (e.g., pasta Monday, taco Tuesday, breakfast-for-dinner Wednesday…) reduce mental load, time, money, food waste, and family friction at dinner time.

Curb decision fatigue! The idea to theme dinners is that you do the same thing every week.

Read more at thewellplannedkitchen.com

Photo by Dennis Sylvester Hurd, flickr

Buy Bird friendly Habitat certified coffee

10/31/2025

When buying your morning java, select coffee that is certified as Bird Friendly Habitat Coffee to promote coffee growing practices that support birds.

To quench the international thirst for coffee, plantations have sprung up throughout tropical areas, replacing habitat used by both resident and migratory birds. Americans alone drink 1/3 of the world’s coffee. The issue has been made worse by the development of sun-loving varieties being grown on large plantations that have already replaced 40% of the shade-grown varieties. However, by employing sustainable practices, these shade-loving tropical plants can be grown in such a way to recreate necessary bird habitat. Look for coffee that is certified as Smithsonian Bird Friendly® coffee: it is sustainably grown in shade created by a canopy of at least 60% native plants.

Learn more from The Willistown Conservation Trust.

Eat smaller portions for better health

9/26/2025

People eat less when exposed to smaller portions, according to research.

Exposure to smaller portions of food changes perceptions of what constitutes a normal amount of food to eat and affects the amount of food people choose to eat in the future.

Read the 2019 article in the journal Food Quality and Preference.

Photo by AVID Vines, Flickr

No oil or grease down the drain

9/5/2025

Collect leftover cooking oil in a sealed container. If you pour it down the sink, even a small amount, “fatbergs” can form that stick to your pipes and lead to blockages. If you have a septic tank, the results are riskier.

The problem goes beyond having a blockage in your own pipes. Your oil or grease combines with all the other oil and grease floating around in the sewer. When it meets “flushable” wipes and other products, a lethal bond is formed. It may not seem like a big deal to pour a little grease down the sink from time to time, but it becomes a major issue when everyone else is doing the same. The removal of fatbergs costs cities tremendous resources.

Read more at earth911

Photo by Susan O'Donnell

Beans instead of beef

7/11/2025

Beans, a superstar food, ward off hunger as well as beef, according to a new study using breakfast tortillas. Consider the option of mixing the two together.

Beans and other legumes are superstars, easy on the planet and packed with nutrients, fiber, and protein. A new study shows they ward off hunger as well as beef. Consider the option of mixing the two together.

Read more here.

Photo by Susan O'Donnell

Fiber reduces PFAS

6/27/2025

Eating more fiber can reduce the levels of two common PFAS or “forever chemicals” in both children and adults, finds a new study in the journal Environmental Health.

Forever chemicals are present in the blood of almost everyone on the planet, with growing concerns about their toxicity. Researchers hypothesized that a gel formed by dietary fiber could stop the gut’s cell lining from absorbing PFAS.

Photo by Susan O'Donnell

Read more at Ecowatch.com

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