May 1, 2025 • 8 mins
A Hawke’s Bay group is helping households tackle food waste.
An average of 130,000 tonnes of food is wasted each year in New Zealand – 86kgs per household, resulting in $1326 down the drain.
Every Bite is a four-week programme run by Sustainable Hawke’s Bay, designed to help households become more food resourceful and reduce waste.
Acting General Manager Sam Paterson told Kerre Woodham the programme is teaching a variety of things – not only how to cook, but how to substitute ingredients, and make new things.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the carry Wood and Morning's podcast from
News Talks het b.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Now, I was reading a story. I love reading these
on the up stories. The New Zealand Herald's running good
news stories, and there have been, you know, of all sorts,
all varieties covers a hugely wide spectrum, and this one
is about an initiative in hawks Bay. I'm pretty sure
(00:34):
most regions have them, but this is called every Bite
and it is run by Sustainable hawks Bay, who have
a program to try and reduce household waste by ten percent,
saving people money and reducing the greenhouse gasses that would
otherwise go into the dumps. In New Zealand in general,
(00:56):
apparently we waste about one hundred and thirty thousand tons
of food per year, sixty percent of which is still
considered edible, about eighty six kilograms of food per household
per year of perfectly edible food going to the landfill.
And Sustainable hawks Bay runs a four week program where
(01:23):
people get together with amazing chefs, and hawks Bay has
a whole city full of amazing chefs to give people
ideas of what they could do with food that looks
a little bit past its best. Sam Patterson from Sustainable
hawks Bay, who is Sustainable hawks Bay's acting general manager,
joins me. Now, good morning to.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
You, kelber Kerry. How are you kil very very well?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Thank you Sam. This is a great initiative And how
did it start? Where did it begin?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yeah, it was a really cool opportunity for us to
be part of. So it's actually led by Zero Waste
ALTA and it's a partnership between ourselves and a number
of other hubs around the country that are collectively working
to establish a food waste program for the betterment of
both everyone's back pockets but also the planet. So really
a collective effort that we've all been working on over
(02:16):
past a couple of years.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Now, older listeners, those who enjoyed a Littlebert humpting that
we played before the news, would see this as just
good household management. Everybody back in the day learned to
use everything because there just wasn't There just wasn't the
(02:40):
abundance around that we have now, so they knew how
to You know, this was just considered good practice, wasn't
it to use up everything? But all I know when
I was reading some of the recipes which I or
some of the things that you taught to cook. I
do do a fridge soup in winter which I really love,
just using up all the vegetables, boiling them up with
(03:01):
some stock and then whizzing them. And it tastes different
every week, depending on you know, what sort of vegetables
they've got left over. But that can get a bit old.
We can week out. You know what other things are
our chefs or that are the your chefs teaching people
how to cook?
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yes, so that's teaching a number of things. Firstly, the
chefs are using their experience to actually create tasty meals
for people on the day, so they're getting delicious food
that is absolutely outstanding. And so it's teaching things such
as how you use substitutes for ingredients. You might be
used to making a certain curry that might always have potatoes,
(03:42):
how do you actually substitute that worth something else that's
left over in your pantry, that's sad looking carrot that
we all have sitting there at the end of shopping week,
how do we actually incorporate that into our meals? And look,
we know there's three really simple things that we can
all do to reduce foods race, and one of those
things is actually just putting that food on a shelf
(04:03):
and saying that food needs to be eaten. That reminders
that you look into the fridge every time you open
this and you kind of you get that feeling inside
that I should probably use that yogat on my breakfast
this morning before it goes off. Just having it there
in a place where you know that creates the difference
and save a few dollars.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
So is there a website where people can go to
have a look at recipes that they can trial with
the food that's left over, or is it more just
encouraging people to have a mindset of exploring different options.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Yes, it's a bit of both. So yeah, every Bite
dot in z that's a website for the project and
there's events that are currently happening. Look Natures are next
one Tuesday next week for anyone interested. But there's also
events an Auckland, Coromandel, Queenstown and other places as well,
so people can pop on there and just see what's available.
But on there they also have the resources that actually
(05:00):
provide that knowledge. So there are recipes that you can
guess you learn the benefit of a something measuring your
food race and actually think, oh that's how much I create,
and so that website pulls everything together and it's a
great place for any listeners to go to if they
are interested in actually trying something a little bit new,
potentially having some tasty snacks along the way and not
(05:22):
make a bit of a difference to the planet as well.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, it's absolutely it's a very nice website too, may
I say, very bright, very cheery. I'm just having a
look at it now. A risotto using the leftover edges
and the curry. That's a great idea. I hadn't thought
of that one, but I'll certainly be doing that because
that's really easy to do.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Yeah. And the neat thing is that a lot of
these recipes came about. So this is the second year
of the program, so in year one some of the
attendees actually came up with some of the recipes that
were incorporated, and some of our team across the country
who are doing this, so they quite personal recipes as well,
which you might not find elsewhere.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Absolutely. The other thing though, is that time is a commodit.
It's all very well and good for me to bang
on about, you know, taking the time to go through
your fridge and clean it out, and get the food
and then prep it from scratch. Time is such a
valuable commodity and a lot of people just don't have it.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Yeah, that's one hundred percent right, And look, for us,
it's not about putting any crazy barriers in place that
are going to put people off. Look, we know everyone
has busy lives, and because they're getting busier by the day,
we all know that it's really simple.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
No.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Step one is actually just put your food waste into
an ice cream container and see how much you create.
We're not saying go and measure at work out how
many grams. That would just be a waste of everyone's time.
But once you see how much you create, you also
look at him and be like, no, little Johnny, he's
obviously wasting his toast a little bit. Maybe he only
needs three pieces instead of four.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
No.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
The second one is creating that shelf. We just put
stuff and so when your kids, when your husband, when
your wife goes into the fridge, they just take it
off the shelf. Super simple, no time wasted there. And
the furdest is using the food that is there and
seeing if you can make a bit of a household challenge.
So we've got a group of flatmates in Hastings. They're
(07:17):
going to try and take a turn each week where
each flatmate is going to cook a dish from whatever
they can find and it could be a bit of
a disaster, but they're looking forward.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
To it absolutely and make it a bit of a
fun challenge. Okay, So everybyte dot co, dot n sid
for those who want to have a look and see
how they can reduce their food waste and also save money.
Because if you're seeing I guess as you say, you've
got to understand how much you're wasting and what you're wasting.
And if you're seeing something that you buy every week
because you think you should and you're never using it,
(07:50):
then stop buying it because everything's expensive at the moment.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Absolutely, and that's a big part of it. Now you
can say hundreds of dollars a year just by rethinking
how you think less lines of benefit you're making for
the planet. You know, reducing food goes is the number
one thing by far that we can do to fight
climate change. Everyone thinks it's always about making personal sacrifices.
This is actually something you can do for good that
(08:17):
has a benefit to your back pocket as well. It's
a no brainer.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Lovely to talk. Thanks Sam, Sam Patterson, Sustainable Hooks Bay
Acting general manager.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
For more from carry Wood and Mornings, listen live to
News Talks at B from nine am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the carry Wood and Morning's podcast from
News Talks het b.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Now, I was reading a story. I love reading these
on the up stories. The New Zealand Herald's running good
news stories, and there have been, you know, of all sorts,
all varieties covers a hugely wide spectrum, and this one
is about an initiative in hawks Bay. I'm pretty sure
(00:34):
most regions have them, but this is called every Bite
and it is run by Sustainable hawks Bay, who have
a program to try and reduce household waste by ten percent,
saving people money and reducing the greenhouse gasses that would
otherwise go into the dumps. In New Zealand in general,
(00:56):
apparently we waste about one hundred and thirty thousand tons
of food per year, sixty percent of which is still
considered edible, about eighty six kilograms of food per household
per year of perfectly edible food going to the landfill.
And Sustainable hawks Bay runs a four week program where
(01:23):
people get together with amazing chefs, and hawks Bay has
a whole city full of amazing chefs to give people
ideas of what they could do with food that looks
a little bit past its best. Sam Patterson from Sustainable
hawks Bay, who is Sustainable hawks Bay's acting general manager,
joins me. Now, good morning to.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
You, kelber Kerry. How are you kil very very well?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Thank you Sam. This is a great initiative And how
did it start? Where did it begin?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yeah, it was a really cool opportunity for us to
be part of. So it's actually led by Zero Waste
ALTA and it's a partnership between ourselves and a number
of other hubs around the country that are collectively working
to establish a food waste program for the betterment of
both everyone's back pockets but also the planet. So really
a collective effort that we've all been working on over
(02:16):
past a couple of years.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Now, older listeners, those who enjoyed a Littlebert humpting that
we played before the news, would see this as just
good household management. Everybody back in the day learned to
use everything because there just wasn't There just wasn't the
(02:40):
abundance around that we have now, so they knew how
to You know, this was just considered good practice, wasn't
it to use up everything? But all I know when
I was reading some of the recipes which I or
some of the things that you taught to cook. I
do do a fridge soup in winter which I really love,
just using up all the vegetables, boiling them up with
(03:01):
some stock and then whizzing them. And it tastes different
every week, depending on you know, what sort of vegetables
they've got left over. But that can get a bit old.
We can week out. You know what other things are
our chefs or that are the your chefs teaching people
how to cook?
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yes, so that's teaching a number of things. Firstly, the
chefs are using their experience to actually create tasty meals
for people on the day, so they're getting delicious food
that is absolutely outstanding. And so it's teaching things such
as how you use substitutes for ingredients. You might be
used to making a certain curry that might always have potatoes,
(03:42):
how do you actually substitute that worth something else that's
left over in your pantry, that's sad looking carrot that
we all have sitting there at the end of shopping week,
how do we actually incorporate that into our meals? And look,
we know there's three really simple things that we can
all do to reduce foods race, and one of those
things is actually just putting that food on a shelf
(04:03):
and saying that food needs to be eaten. That reminders
that you look into the fridge every time you open
this and you kind of you get that feeling inside
that I should probably use that yogat on my breakfast
this morning before it goes off. Just having it there
in a place where you know that creates the difference
and save a few dollars.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
So is there a website where people can go to
have a look at recipes that they can trial with
the food that's left over, or is it more just
encouraging people to have a mindset of exploring different options.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Yes, it's a bit of both. So yeah, every Bite
dot in z that's a website for the project and
there's events that are currently happening. Look Natures are next
one Tuesday next week for anyone interested. But there's also
events an Auckland, Coromandel, Queenstown and other places as well,
so people can pop on there and just see what's available.
But on there they also have the resources that actually
(05:00):
provide that knowledge. So there are recipes that you can
guess you learn the benefit of a something measuring your
food race and actually think, oh that's how much I create,
and so that website pulls everything together and it's a
great place for any listeners to go to if they
are interested in actually trying something a little bit new,
potentially having some tasty snacks along the way and not
(05:22):
make a bit of a difference to the planet as well.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, it's absolutely it's a very nice website too, may
I say, very bright, very cheery. I'm just having a
look at it now. A risotto using the leftover edges
and the curry. That's a great idea. I hadn't thought
of that one, but I'll certainly be doing that because
that's really easy to do.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Yeah. And the neat thing is that a lot of
these recipes came about. So this is the second year
of the program, so in year one some of the
attendees actually came up with some of the recipes that
were incorporated, and some of our team across the country
who are doing this, so they quite personal recipes as well,
which you might not find elsewhere.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Absolutely. The other thing though, is that time is a commodit.
It's all very well and good for me to bang
on about, you know, taking the time to go through
your fridge and clean it out, and get the food
and then prep it from scratch. Time is such a
valuable commodity and a lot of people just don't have it.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Yeah, that's one hundred percent right, And look, for us,
it's not about putting any crazy barriers in place that
are going to put people off. Look, we know everyone
has busy lives, and because they're getting busier by the day,
we all know that it's really simple.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
No.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Step one is actually just put your food waste into
an ice cream container and see how much you create.
We're not saying go and measure at work out how
many grams. That would just be a waste of everyone's time.
But once you see how much you create, you also
look at him and be like, no, little Johnny, he's
obviously wasting his toast a little bit. Maybe he only
needs three pieces instead of four.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
No.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
The second one is creating that shelf. We just put
stuff and so when your kids, when your husband, when
your wife goes into the fridge, they just take it
off the shelf. Super simple, no time wasted there. And
the furdest is using the food that is there and
seeing if you can make a bit of a household challenge.
So we've got a group of flatmates in Hastings. They're
(07:17):
going to try and take a turn each week where
each flatmate is going to cook a dish from whatever
they can find and it could be a bit of
a disaster, but they're looking forward.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
To it absolutely and make it a bit of a
fun challenge. Okay, So everybyte dot co, dot n sid
for those who want to have a look and see
how they can reduce their food waste and also save money.
Because if you're seeing I guess as you say, you've
got to understand how much you're wasting and what you're wasting.
And if you're seeing something that you buy every week
because you think you should and you're never using it,
(07:50):
then stop buying it because everything's expensive at the moment.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Absolutely, and that's a big part of it. Now you
can say hundreds of dollars a year just by rethinking
how you think less lines of benefit you're making for
the planet. You know, reducing food goes is the number
one thing by far that we can do to fight
climate change. Everyone thinks it's always about making personal sacrifices.
This is actually something you can do for good that
(08:17):
has a benefit to your back pocket as well. It's
a no brainer.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Lovely to talk. Thanks Sam, Sam Patterson, Sustainable Hooks Bay
Acting general manager.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
For more from carry Wood and Mornings, listen live to
News Talks at B from nine am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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