Hennepin County residents toss 95,000 tons of food every year. ‘Mom’ wants you to cut it out.

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 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 it is food that’s 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.

One of the easiest ways to waste less edible food is to buy less in the first place. Kedward says having a weekly meal plan will cut back on purchasing more than you can eat.

It’s best to only plan three or four meals each week, because things always change, she said. Also, be mindful of portion sizes, if leftovers are not a favorite.

Where food is stored has a big effect on how long it stays fresh and whether it gets eaten. Keep items that need to be used soon in a place that’s easy to spot, and store fruits in vegetables in ways that prolong freshness.

Also, be skeptical of “sell by,” “use by” and other dates on food packaging because nearly all are subjective. The only expiration date required by law is on baby formula, Kedward said.

Madeline Summers, a St. Louis Park resident, says her household is more focused on the issue since she participated in the annual “Stop Food Waste Challenge” in 2023. For Summers, the key was to start small.

“For some people, it works to do everything all at once,” she said. “That’s not me. I’m more of a habit stacker.”

In her role as community and outreach specialist for Mississippi Market in St. Paul, Summers works to get food that’s unlikely to be sold to people who are hungry. She also teaches cooking classes to help customers use ingredients creatively, plan meals and manage their food costs.

“There are very few people who are not grocery shopping on a budget,” Summers said. “I think a major piece of preventing food waste at home is a basic knowledge of cooking.”

Hennepin County is just one of the local governments across Minnesota targeting uneaten food as a way to address a growing statewide problem: Residents are creating too much garbage.

“In Minnesota, we have a 6 million plus tons of waste problem,” said Kirk Koudelka, an assistant commissioner with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).

Composting organics, like food waste, is a big part of state and local plans to reduce the amount of garbage sent to landfills. But Koudelka and Kedward both say the best thing residents can do is not waste food in the first place.

“If you can prevent food waste, it can be sent to other places,” Koudelka said, noting that about 7% of Minnesota residents don’t always have enough to eat. “It may seem like a small thing, but it can have a huge benefit.”

In Hennepin County, the solid waste plan finalized in 2024 is a roadmap toward diverting 90% of residents’ trash from landfills. Instead, that garbage would be reused, recycled, composted or not created in the first place.

Without big reductions in garbage, county leaders acknowledge it will be tough to close the Hennepin County Energy Recovery Center (HERC), the trash incinerator on the edge of downtown Minneapolis.

County officials have made progress toward their zero-waste goals.

Last year, the Legislature required all packaging be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2032. The county requires all cities to offer curbside organics pick up and a 2018 update to recycling rules stipulates that restaurants and businesses need to find ways to keep food out of the trash.

County leaders want state funding for a trash sorting facility to pull recyclables from the trash.

Despite these county efforts, residents’ behavior still has the biggest effect the amount of garbage.

“Prevention overall is going to have the greater benefit,” Koudelka said. “We can have great collection systems, but unless the individual makes the choice, it’s not going to happen.”