Engaging 900 San Diego County Residents in Reducing Household Food Waste
In October 2019, the Alliance launched the Save the Food, San Diego! EcoChallenge, an innovative social competition engaging individuals and households in fun, food waste tracking challenges, with the goal of reducing food waste through consumer education.
By the end of the program, EcoChallenge participants achieved a 38% reduction in household food waste, as compared to their baseline food waste levels when they started the program.
Reaching residents through their workplaces and universities
The Alliance partnered with 6 institutions in San Diego County—two corporate campuses, two university campuses, and two jurisdictions—to recruit and engage their students, staff, faculty, and employees in the EcoChallenge program. Across these partner institutions, close to 900 participants were recruited and tasked with weighing, recording, and tracking their household food waste over a period of 15 months.
Supplementing food waste tracking with education
Between each food waste tracking period during the EcoChallenge program, targeted consumer education campaigns were implemented to provide participants with tips, tricks, and strategies for reducing food waste at home. Campaign strategies primarily focused on food waste prevention to align with the highest priority strategy of the EPA Food Recovery Hierarchy, and topics of focus for the campaign included meal planning, smart grocery shopping, proper food storage, zero waste cooking, social, environmental, and economic impacts of wasted food, sustainable food systems, and climate change.
For more information about the details and methodology behind the EcoChallenge program, read the program case study prepared by the Alliance’s Wasted Food Prevention Program team and published by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC).
The Save the Food, San Diego! EcoChallenge was funded by a grant from the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) through California Climate Investments.
The EcoChallenge is part of the Save the Food, San Diego! campaign, through which San Diego Food System Alliance educates residents about the impact of wasted food at the household level.