Sustainable Tips for Meal Planning and Grocery Shopping

Sustainable Grocery Shopping Tips

• Bring reusable bags
  • Most stores will give you $0.05 of credit for bringing your own bag
• Shop locally as much possible
  • Try the Boulder Farmers Market in Central Park on Saturdays for fresh, seasonal produce from local vendors!
• Check the resin identification codes on the packaging of your items
  • opt for easily recyclable or compostable packaging.
• Buy in bulk! 
  • Reuse glass jars or bags in the bulk section at your local grocery store to eliminate any packaging at all for snacks, spices, coffee, etc!  
• Shop the perimeter of the store
  • This way you avoid over packaged and over processed foods. 
• Buy less! 
  • Make a list of exactly what you need and stick to it. This will significantly reduce your production of food waste.
• Pay attention to labels!
  • Opt for brands labelled as fair-trade, organic, safe catch, non-gmo, social association, etc. to make sure that you are contributing to environmentally friendly companies.

Sustainable Meal Planning Tips

• Use the  KITCHENPAL app to plan your meals
  • Allows you to enter your kitchen’s inventory and organizes it by expiration dates, quantity, etc
  • Generates recipes with the ingredients in your inventory
  • Creates grocery lists
• Eat your leftovers!
  • Always store leftovers for later rather than throwing away food
• Ditch plastic wrap
  • Opt for tupperware or reusable beeswax wrap. 

These simple transitions will improve the health of your body and the Earth! Don’t waste food or money by eating all that you buy while avoiding the unhealthy, over packaged foods that create plastic waste.