Hawke's Bay local Alessandra shares her experience with Every Bite
Growing up in Italy, Alessandra Menegon has always been conscious of her food waste.
“My family there had a big emphasis on not wasting,” she says, “I always needed to eat everything on my plate. I couldn't waste anything. So it was really embedded in me, and I really hate waste in any form.”
Now Alessandra lives in Hawke’s Bay with her husband. Their children have left home, but they share their property with a dog, five chickens and a couple of ducks.
Alessandra continues to use the ‘Eat Me First’ label and other activities introduced in the Every Bite programme.
When Alessandra isn’t tending to her animals, she’s often volunteering and creating opportunities for connection with people in her local community.
“I really value connecting and building relationships, because there are always things to learn and contribute. And also it's more of an enjoyable life if you connect with people - caring about the relationship and in general, caring about yourself, your growth and the environment.”
One of the ways Alessandra builds relationships with people and the environment is through Nature Connect; an educational programme for kids, in nature.
“I'm one of the leaders there. Every working day of the week there is a different group of kids, and there's really basic free play, but they’re using all natural things to create things. We have a wood fire, we cook things on it, and also books are read, and we share information about the environment. So it's really cool, and they love it. Kids are very creative.”
Through taking part in Every Bite with Environment Centre Hawke’s Bay, Alessandra realised being creative can help with food waste prevention too.
“At one point during the Every Bite programme I had all this, you know, crust of the bread, from making another recipe, and I made it into this amazing bread cake. It was just the crust, eggs, milk and sultanas and some sugar, cinnamon, and lemon rind, and it made the most unbelievable cake.”
Even Alessandra’s dog has benefited from her outside-of-the-box thinking in the kitchen.
“A funny thing I just discovered is that things that you normally might waste, you know, you have a broccoli and you have the big stalk - I've been putting these things in the freezer to make soup one day. But I don't make many soups, so I decided one day, well, maybe I’ll give a frozen broccoli stick to the dog - and he loved it!”
“I thought, oh my goodness, it's a way to give fresh vegetables to the dog that is very healthy for them as well. Of course, I researched, can you give broccoli to a dog? Always research what you can give to animals. But that really was completely interesting, I was really surprised. So I will do that more often as well. Broccoli stalk is a chew toy if it's frozen. He loves frozen broccoli. If it's not frozen, he doesn't want it.”
It was learning about creative solutions like this that made Alessandra want to take part in Every Bite in the first place.
“I thought it was an interesting thing to be involved in. I wanted to understand more about the programme, and thought maybe there would be new tips I could learn about preventing food waste, something that could help me, and that I could share with people to help them as well.”
One of Alessandra’s favourite tips from the programme was setting up an ‘Eat Me First’ shelf in her fridge.
“Every time I open the fridge, the sticker is on the shelf. And even if I don't always put the thing in there, when I open the fridge, I have attention on what's left over. It becomes more front of mind for me, where before it wasn't.”
Taking part in the programme also gave Alessandra the motivation to do things she knew were useful, but didn’t always get around to.
“One thing I found very helpful was cleaning it all up - taking everything out of the pantry and seeing what's old. It’s something you know you need to do, but you don't. Every Bite really gave me an incentive to do it.”
One of the challenges Alessandra faces when it comes to preventing food waste, is the difference between what she and her husband consider waste.
“Sometimes you throw out things that are actually still food, but you don't see as such, like the stalks or the white part of silverbeet. My husband doesn't eat them - for him it’s not something you eat or you cook. But in Italy, we do eat that.”
Through Every Bite, Alessandra found ways to think about and involve others in food waste prevention, including her husband, who now puts aside foods he might consider inedible for her to cook and make use of later. “He's keeping it going too.”
Overall, taking part in Every Bite has helped Alessandra pay more attention to her food waste.
“I look much more carefully at what’s in the fridge than before. Before maybe I’d have a quick look, and oh, an open avocado, but now I know, so I actually put much more attention on it. I’m more proactive about doing stuff before it’s too late.”
And she takes comfort in knowing she’s not alone.
“Knowing that other people are working on reducing their food waste is great, it feels like you are not just alone doing that, but you are supporting a movement. It’s inspiring for people who are already doing a pretty good job.”
Every Bite is delivered by the Zero Waste Network and Environment Hubs Aotearoa in partnership with the Ministry for the Environment.
If you’d like to take part in upcoming programmes, register your interest here.