2022 Stop Food Waste Day: 15 Houston restaurants offer zero-waste meals

Fifteen Houston restaurants hope to raise awareness of the problem of food waste by partnering with Second Servings, a nonprofit that feeds the hungry by salvaging excess food from businesses.

In celebration of Stop Food Waste Day on April 27, participating restaurants will offer a zero-waste meal or cocktail that includes a donation to feed hungry Houstonians.

Click here to find Houston restaurants participating in Stop Food Waste Day

The amount of food waste in the Houston area is staggering, while 16% of residents are considered food insecure.

“It’s like walking into a grocery store and filling your cart with three bags of groceries and throwing one in the trash on the way out the door,” said Barbara Bronstein, founder and president of Second Servings. “That makes no sense.”

Not only is the food wasted, but also the time and resources that went into growing the food, labor, shipping, production and maintenance of those items.

“Supermarkets produce an average of about 300 pounds of excess groceries every day,” Bronstein said. “Normally it would go to waste, so let’s salvage that.”

RELATED: Nonprofit delivers surplus food from restaurants, events to the hungry

Daniel Pecoraro, a former chef at The Capital Grille, said we can all do our part by creating a menu beforehand that reduces food waste at home.

Pecoraro said at the end of each week, think about a vegetable stew or soup.

“By all means use these vegetables, not only for nutrition but also to get rid of the things you have left over,” Pecoraro said.

Here are some other things you can do to keep groceries fresh and save money:

• Wrap banana stems tightly in plastic wrap
• Put the lemons in a bowl of water in the fridge
• Store ripe avocados in the refrigerator
• Wrap the celery tightly in foil and store in the refrigerator
• Store milk on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator to prevent spoilage
• Store opened jars of salsa and more upside down in the fridge

Bronstein said Second Servings is working to create a bridge between those in need and the surplus found at local grocers, venues, food manufacturers and bakeries.

You can learn more about Second Servings on its website.