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Emily Pollack's avatar

Emily Pollack

Bloomington's Grape Expectations

"Proud to be a Hennepin Recycling Ambassador, helping others to minimize their waste in many different ways."

POINTS TOTAL

  • 0 TODAY
  • 0 THIS WEEK
  • 861 TOTAL

participant impact

  • UP TO
    1.0
    advocacy action
    completed
  • UP TO
    1.0
    documentary
    watched
  • UP TO
    167
    pounds of CO2
    have been saved
  • UP TO
    120
    pounds
    food waste prevented
  • UP TO
    11
    conversations
    with people
  • UP TO
    60
    minutes
    spent learning

Emily's actions

Community

Get Social

I will share information about food waste and the actions that I am taking on social media.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Community

Watch a Documentary About Food

I will watch 1 videos or documentaries to learn about the scope and scale of food waste in this country.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Community

Follow Bloggers and Influencers

I will follow 1 food waste prevention bloggers and influencers to get continuous tips and reminders that I can add to my lifestyle to waste less food.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Planning

Track My Wasted Food

I will track the food that my household of 8 throws out so I can learn what we're wasting and why.

COMPLETED 29
DAILY ACTIONS

Planning

Keep a Food Inventory

I will take a fridge and pantry inventory to stay up to date with what I have at home before I go grocery shopping.

COMPLETED 6
DAILY ACTIONS

Community

Send it Down the Grape Vine

I will talk to 10 family members or friends about my experience with this challenge, food waste, and what I have learned.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Kids

Visit a Farm

I will visit a local pizza farm, teaching farm, or CSA grower to educate myself and my children on farm-to-table concepts.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Shopping

Stick to Your Grocery List

I will only purchase the items on my grocery list and avoid impulse purchases.

COMPLETED 14
DAILY ACTIONS

Participant Feed


  • Emily Pollack's avatar
    Emily Pollack 8/30/2025 8:41 PM
    Knew I had some sweet potatoes in the freezer. Looked for them to have with dinner...found another set I had frozen a different time. It was like buying more but not having to pay for them - obviously need to figure out how to track freezer portions better than have been!!!

  • Emily Pollack's avatar
    Emily Pollack 8/29/2025 9:09 PM
    Turns out I am the driver of eating leftovers. I was unexpectedly away the last couple of days, and in spite of TELLING people what they should eat, they did not...compost bin saw a lot more content than I was hoping today.

    • Angela Skrade's avatar
      Angela Skrade 8/30/2025 10:54 AM
      That happens a lot in my house, too. I find it incredibly frustrating.

  • Emily Pollack's avatar
    Emily Pollack 8/27/2025 9:34 PM
    Always the black beans. We make nachos and then I use the remaining beans in my rice lunches, however, there are often a few that go bad before I can finish them....How do they multiply in the container every night?

  • Emily Pollack's avatar
    Emily Pollack 8/26/2025 10:33 AM
    Fair food is better with friends!!

    We attend a small fair every year and have our set menu. This year due to a variety of reasons, we had different people attending on different days. This made our eating a bit more challenging, having fewer people to share certain things with meant we bought less (good and bad). I had way more nacho chips than I wanted, and some ate more ice cream than they needed (thank heavens for lactose pills ;) )!

    I appreciated how our bigger group was aware of waste and we all chose responsible buying over having everything we wanted.

    • H McCrillis 's avatar
      H McCrillis 8/27/2025 1:27 AM
      Indeed, I am surprised that that many people can actually eat those entire servings at fairs. I usually eat at either Salem or Hamline.

  • Emily Pollack's avatar
    Emily Pollack 8/17/2025 4:13 PM
    Went to Target and stuck to the list completely (where is my reward???).

    Oddly enough I am finding the more you say no the easier it gets. We also went to an estate sale today and there was some good stuff!!! Like with food deals - if there is no plan/time/room we don't need it. I actually didn't feel guilty after either event so am quite pleased for the day!!

    • Jenny Kedward's avatar
      Jenny Kedward 8/18/2025 11:50 AM
      You are so right! There's so much power in saying no and getting in/out of the store quickly.

  • Emily Pollack's avatar
    Emily Pollack 8/15/2025 6:39 PM
    Today my kids learned that if you drop bread on the ground and try to wash it off, it just gets soggy and there are no family members willing to eat it....so it ends up in compost.

  • Emily Pollack's avatar
    Emily Pollack 8/14/2025 10:20 PM
    Tomorrow is city compost pickup...will see what comes out of the fridge to be added...We will log it and feel guilty ;)

  • Emily Pollack's avatar
    Emily Pollack 8/13/2025 1:13 PM
    Yesterday one of the kids pulled out the compost and looked at the list we have been keeping: Someone is not writing down what they put in here, let's look at what is in here!

    One of those moments of hope...
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Planning
    What did you find you are tossing the most? How can you change your habits to avoid wasting this food?

    Emily Pollack's avatar
    Emily Pollack 8/12/2025 10:20 AM
    Fruit is a challenge. We are a 90% house. We will do projects 90% of the way then get sidetracked, cleaning goes well 90% of the time...Kids love something for a time then are over it!

    Fruit, we love it the first day, enjoy the second, tolerate the third, then are done! I sometimes let them eat the whole package the first day so it doesn't go bad, but that kind of violates my moderation principles. If we don't eat it all the first day there is always a few grapes or a berry or chunks of watermelon that go uneaten...even apples have occasionally gone bad.

    • Sharon  Kephart 's avatar
      Sharon Kephart 8/12/2025 7:09 PM
      I use to have a lot of fruit waste then I started freezing half of the items like grapes, strawberries ....and when done with the fresh fruit we'd rake out the frozen for a refreshing treat. No waste!

  • Emily Pollack's avatar
    Emily Pollack 8/11/2025 9:39 PM
    I talked to several people about the food waste challenge that I would normally not have. Some had no interest, but one wanted to learn more. I take that as a WIN!!

    Part of this reaching out was just to fulfill a challenge, but as I step out of my comfort zone I am realizing that a lot of people do not really think about waste the way I do.

    For most people I am finding that the waste is money you throw away concept really hits home!