Jenny Kedward likes to joke she’s “Hennepin County’s mom” because she’s on a mission to get residents to clean their plates.
For Kedward, the county’s food waste prevention specialist, it comes down to a simple mantra: “Buy the food you will eat and eat the food you buy.”
Kedward wants residents to resolve to do more of that in 2025 so that Hennepin County can eventually meet its goal of cutting in half the 95,200 tons of edible food thrown away there each year. That’s enough to fill Target Field 1½ times.
About 20% of what residents buy at the grocery store ends up in the trash or compost bin, and some of that food was never touched. For a family of four, it adds up to as much as $2,500 a year wasted.
“Even if we composted everything we could, we are still using the resources it took to make the food we are not eating,” Kedward said. “We have to look at the whole life of a product.”
Reducing food waste is one of the easiest ways residents can have a direct effect on climate change, Kedward said. Food buried in a landfill can take four or five years before it begins to break down, and once it does, it releases methane, one of the worst greenhouse gases.
Last spring, Kedward began leading a countywide initiative, Trash or Cash, encouraging residents to take some simple steps to reduce food waste. Much of the effort focuses on the centerpiece of most kitchens, the refrigerator.
“It’s not rocket science. We know what works,” Kedward said.