Giving Compass' Take:

• The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred consumer consciousness when it comes to food waste, prompting individuals to make the most of their groceries during this crisis. 

• How can donors help support the plight of advocates against food waste and direct capital toward these initiatives?  How are you addressing food waste during the pandemic? 

• Read more about curbing food waste during COVID-19. 

When the coronavirus pandemic forced Rohini Singh to work from her house, she realised the grocery bill was likely to rise since her family of three would be mostly eating at home.

She also didn’t want to waste food, with shelves in some supermarkets emptying in the early days of the crisis, and trips to stock up becoming more perilous.

“I think the pandemic made me more conscious about saving money and not wasting (food) if I can help it,” the university professor, who lives in Ohio, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

To try to achieve both goals, she signed up to Imperfect Foods, which delivers produce and other foods rejected by grocery stores and supermarkets for cosmetic reasons.

“Instead of getting thrown out, if (the foods) were to be sent to consumers who don’t mind the bumps and blemishes, it seemed… a way to cut down on waste,” Singh said.

Advocates against food waste say the pandemic has made some consumers in rich countries reconsider how much food they bin, a habit they hope will stick even after the health crisis is over.

Rachael Jackson, who runs Eat or Toss - a website that helps people assess if foods such as apples with black spots or sweet potatoes with purple sprouts are still safe to eat - said her traffic tripled between February and May.

“People didn’t want to go out as much, and things they found in their kitchen that normally they would throw away… now they were interested in doing research to find out if it was still okay to eat,” the Washington-based journalist said.

Since then, the site’s traffic has neatly followed the U.S. pandemic’s curve, slipping a little when shops and restaurants re-opened and climbing again since July as the virus resurged, Johnson said.

Read the full article about less food waste during the pandemic by Thomson Reuters Foundation at Eco-Business.