The Love Food, Fight Waste program is meant to offer community members resources and information on how to reduce food waste that includes a variety of ways to get involved and learn.
This program is a collaboration between Table to Table and the City of Iowa City.
Donate Quality Food
Consider donating good food to those in need this holiday season.
Table to Table, Johnson County's food rescue non-profit organization, accepts all food and personal hygiene items that are accepted by our pantry partners and distributes them equitably across the Johnson County Food Access Network. That means your donation will go to more than just one pantry in the community, extending your impact even farther.
Most needed items and donation drop-off instructions for the three major pantries in Johnson County and the Food Pantry at the University of Iowa:
Food Donation Common Questions (Answers provided by Table to Table)
Can I donate something if it’s past the "best by/use by/sell by" date printed on it?
Yes, items past their "best by/use by/sell by" dates are accepted, provided they are not more than one year expired and show no signs of spoilage.
Can I donate an opened box of granola bars?
Yes, if a box of food items is opened but the items are all individually wrapped, labelled, and list the ingredients on them then you can still donate them.
What non-food items can I donate?
Certain non-food items are some of the most requested items at pantries such as diapers, toilet paper, pet food, laundry detergent, and personal hygiene products as these are often the most expensive in stores.
What items cannot be accepted at the pantries?
Baby food or formula past “best by” date
Cans with sharp dents or rust that cannot be easily removed
Unlabeled food
Homemade food items
Meat from home freezer
Non-consumable items like clothing, furniture, etc.
Food waste significantly increases from November to New Year’s. Why? Our Johnson County community celebrates a diversity of holidays during this time of year, and one thing most of them have in common is food.
While feasts and large meal preparations can run the risk of producing food waste, they also present an opportunity to be proactive and creative in our approach to food in an effort to reduce waste. As food wasted has immense social, economic, and climatic impacts, choosing to reduce food waste is a great way to have a positive impact on your local community.
Before Holiday Gatherings
Before you head to the grocery store to purchase food for holiday meal prep…
Shop your kitchen. Inventory which food items you already have in the refrigerator and pantry to avoid buying duplicates.
Make a shopping list. What meals or dishes do you plan to make? How many guests do you plan to host? Asking these questions helps to identify types and quantities of ingredients you will need. Making a list for holiday meal shopping keeps you on track at the grocery store and lessens the chance of overbuying. Plus, it may reduce stress during a busy shopping season.
Eat a snack or meal. It is important to avoid grocery shopping when hungry as you are more susceptible to impulse purchases and overbuying.
Once at the grocery store…
Think realistically about items on sale, such as “10 for $5”. It may seem like a tempting deal, but will you actually be able to consume ten? If not, you could end up with food waste, which results in money wasted.
Control quantity. To have better control of quantity when purchasing produce items, opt for unpackaged fresh fruits and vegetables. (Added climate benefit: you reduce packaging, too!)
During Holiday Gatherings
Share leftovers.
Having guests over for a big meal? Send them home with leftovers packed in to-go containers.
Reuse tip: Save up empty and clean plastic containers to pack leftovers (such as cottage cheese tubs, deli meat containers, or take-out containers).
After Holiday Gatherings
Use up leftover ingredients. Four recipe types that help to use up leftover ingredients are soups, sauces, casseroles, and smoothies! These categories allow for a lot of flexibility in terms of ingredients, which is great when we don’t always know what we might have leftover.
Freeze, freeze, freeze! Not going to eat it right away? Freeze food to preserve freshness.
Keep an eye on the refrigerator. It can be easy for a container of strawberries or carton of milk to get unintentionally pushed to the back of the refrigerator and forgotten about. On a weekly basis, reorganize your refrigerator and move items that need to be eaten soon to the front to ensure they get used up.
Compost the unavoidable food waste items. We will always have turkey bones, eggshells, coffee grounds and other types of food that we do not traditionally eat. Handle these materials in an environmentally-friendly way with composting.
Compost at the curb: If you live in a single-family home up to a 4-plex residential building, you receive curbside composting for food and yard waste.
Compost at the Landfill’s Compost Facility: Service area residents that do not have access to curbside composting can take food waste and other organic materials directly to the Iowa City Landfill’s Compost Facility.
Resources List
Where to donate food in Johnson County:
Table to Table is a local non-profit organization that rescues edible food and delivers it to organizations in Johnson County that can use it.
Guest-imator from Save the Food: This tool helps with large meal or party planning to better estimate how much food you will need before heading to the grocery store.
Video Title: "Freeze and Preserve Your Extra Food"
You can save food for months – like hitting a “pause” button on it – by freezing or canning, and it just might surprise you how many different types of food can be preserved for long periods of time. Learn more by visiting the Table to Table website.
Video Title: "Why Local Food Matters"
How far did your food travel to get to your plate? Reduce your carbon footprint and benefit your health by choosing local food. Learn more by visiting the Table to Table website.
Video Title: "Deep Dive Into Composting"
Banana peels, watermelon rinds, corncobs, eggshells, coffee grounds – the list goes on of food scraps that we don’t traditionally eat. Once we’ve eaten the banana, scrambled the eggs, and drank the coffee, what can we do with these non-edible scraps? Compost them! Learn more about this topic at the Table to Table website.
Video Title: "Shop to Reduce Food Waste"
Moldy bread, sour milk, and wilted veggies — these are all common outcomes of buying too much food. Reduce food waste at home and save money by following our easy, simple tips on how to shop to reduce food waste. Learn more about this topic at the Table to Table website.
Video Title: "Keep Food Fresh Longer"
Avoid playing the “what was that?” game while looking through your fridge. You can make your food last longer by storing it in optimal conditions and organizing your fridge and pantry. Watch this program for helpful tips. Learn more about this topic at the Table to Table website.
Video Title: "Rethink and Revive Your Food"
Bread, fruit, and vegetables are just a few food categories at risk of getting wasted when items appear stale, bruised, or wilted. Embracing food imperfections with a little culinary creativity can significantly reduce food waste and save you money! Learn more about this topic at the Table to Table website.
Video Title:"Reduce Food Waste for Your Holiday Gatherings"
Food waste significantly increases from November to New Year’s. Why? Several major holidays take place during this two-month window that involve gatherings and celebrations oftentimes centered around food. Learn some simple tips to be proactive and creative in your approach to food in an effort to reduce waste. Learn more about this topic at the Table to Table website.
Video Title: "Know Your Best By, Use By, & Sell By Dates"
This video takes a look at “best by” and “sell by” dates on food items and what they actually mean. You might be surprised to learn that, except for baby formula, those dates are not food safety recommendations. Learn more about this topic at the Table to Table website.
According to the 2022 Iowa Statewide Material Characterization Study conducted by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, approximately 20.4% of what ends up in the Iowa City Landfill is food waste. In 2022, the Iowa City Landfill properly landfilled 130,109.46 tons of garbage from our service area – Johnson County, Kalona, and Riverside. Of that, about 26,542 tons was food waste.
Why do we want to reduce food waste and keep food out of the landfill?
When food is wasted, it wastes all the resources that went into growing, manufacturing, distributing, and transporting that food. At the landfill, once garbage is compacted into place by our trained Landfill Operators, there is no air (oxygen) or light in a landfill hole. This is the perfect environment for methane, a very potent greenhouse gas, to be produced in the absence of oxygen and in the presence of so many organic materials (food waste). One of the best things each of us can do to take climate action is to reduce food waste.
A great alternative for food waste disposal is composting. While we encourage good, edible food to be eaten as the first priority, we will always have the inevitable banana peels, eggshells, and coffee grounds that we want to responsibly dispose of. Composting is a great option for those items! For a deep dive into composting, check out Table to Table’s website.
Who is recovering food in Johnson County?
T2T saw up to a 60% increase in the amount of food rescued annually between 2017 and 2022. And that growth has continued! Since 2022, Table to Table has continued to increase the amount of food rescued throughout Johnson County.
Table to Table manages a complex food rescue network throughout Johnson County involving more than 100 food donors and nearly 50 recipient organizations. Food donors include area stores, warehouses, processors, restaurants, farms, markets, and gardeners that donate their unsold or excess food to Table to Table. T2T volunteers deliver this food directly to organizations that are serving our neighbors in need so this food reaches people as quickly as possible. Our partners report that most T2T food makes it to our neighbors’ homes within 6 hours of our daily deliveries. These organizations include food pantries, shelters, hot meal sites, and youth programs that connect rescued food to our neighbors. Ultimately, people rescue food by eating it: using it for its intended purpose!
In 2024, T2T recovered 2.7 million pounds of food, redirecting it throughout our community where it was needed and feeding more than 22,000 people. More than half of this food is produce, protein, and dairy. Recall that some of the most commonly wasted foods are produce, dairy, and bread. T2T is making a huge local impact in these most-wasted categories!
T2T rescued food provides about half the total food that the three largest local pantries distribute. Plus, recovered food helps provide more options, including vegan and gluten free foods and a variety of produce grown locally.
Activities
Help us rescue food in our community! Table to Table is currently in need of fleet and facilities volunteers to help prep vans for food rescue routes, route substitutes for Saturday mornings, and we have a few weekly route positions available if you are looking for a routine volunteering gig. We will also be looking for volunteers to help harvest veggies in farm fields this summer! We have an amazing volunteer network, and we would love for you to join us! Visit table2table.org/volunteers, email volunteer@table2table.org, or call 319-337-3400 for more information
Educate yourself on local options to donate extra food and personal care items. Here are just a few wish lists from organizations serving our neighbors:
You may also bring items (dry goods, garden produce, pet food, and hygiene products) to Table to Table to deliver throughout the local hunger relief network.
A sincere thank you to the following local groups and non-profit organizations for sharing Love Food, Fight Waste content with their social networks to help our community reduce food waste! We appreciate your support!
