Reduce Food Waste & Stretch Your Budget

Did you know 40% of all food produced in the US goes to waste, costing the average household around $1,500 a year? In this free nutritional education class, Kelsy Baker, MS, RDN of Sound Dietitians, LLC walks you through practical, low-effort strategies to shop smarter, store food correctly, and cook creatively with what you already have. Hosted by Kristina Wigren of Stilly Valley Health Connections, this class is part of the free monthly Budget-Friendly Series – explore more in our free class recordings library.

What’s covered in this class:

• Date labels decoded – what “sell by,” “best if used by,” and “use by” actually mean, which is the only true safety date, and why most foods are still safe well past the date printed on the package
• Smarter shopping habits – building a list and sticking to it, doing a fridge and pantry audit before you shop, buying only what you’ll use, choosing “ugly produce” for less, and when bulk buying helps (and when it hurts)
• Fridge and pantry organization – the FIFO (First In, First Out) method, temperature zones within your refrigerator and what belongs in each one, labeling leftovers, and storing dry goods in clear containers for easy visibility
• Freezer strategies – how to freeze bananas, leafy greens, dairy, bread, sauces, hard cheese, and citrus zest before they go bad, plus a tip for freezing sauces in muffin tins for easy single-serve portions
• Scrap cooking – how to collect vegetable scraps (onion skins, carrot peels, herb stems) and turn them into free, flavorful homemade broth in under an hour
• A full “no waste week” meal plan – a day-by-day example built around batch cooking one protein on Sunday and stretching it across five different dinners, from grain bowls and tacos to scrappy soup and fridge-clean-out pizza