The following is a guest post by Rebekah Hoffer of Simply Rebekah.

I strive to be a good steward of the Earth. I don’t litter. I recycle. I always use try to remember to use cloth grocery bags. How about what I put in those grocery bags? My favorite cookbook, More-with-Less Cookbook, looks at “how to eat better and consume less of the world’s limited food resourses.”

There is a way of wasting less, easting less, and spending less which gives not less but more – Doris Janzen Longacre, author of More-with-Less Cookbook

We have probably all heard our mothers say, “You better finish your food because there are starving kids in the world!” More-with-Less takes that cliche to a whole new level. Our moms were right! There are starving children and our diet can make a difference.

By being more aware of the food resourses we are eating; we can help put an end to our over-eating, over-consuming and over-spending habits. Of course the world’s hunger issues won’t change over night from one family’s diet. However, all change starts with just one step at a time. One family at a time!

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Written by contributor Katie Kimball of Kitchen Stewardship.

I work so hard not to waste at our house.

Sometimes it seems ridiculous, the pains we eco-conscious folks take to save the Earth, one tiny piece of paper (that we walk up the stairs to the recycle bin) at a time. I do go to great lengths to conserve food, energy, and reduce our disposables at every meal.

When I go out to eat or set foot in a school cafeteria, however, sometimes I feel like my little conserved drop in the ocean of waste can’t really make a difference.

The amount of food alone that gets pitched from most elementary school children’s trays is immense.

I know that we can make changes and reduce our collective waste, and it will happen one person, one drop, one good decision at a time. I can’t stop 400 kids’ waste in a cafeteria, but I can teach my children to take only what they’ll eat, when the time comes.

When you’re traveling, sometimes you just have to eat out. Here are some simple tips for both sit-down and fast food restaurants to help you decrease the restaurant waste, at least for that day:

1. Bring your own containers for leftovers

My father-in-law initially looked at me like I was crazy when I ran to the car to retrieve my take-out boxes when we took them out for Mother’s Day. He then admitted, “You know, I’m just getting used to expecting weird stuff like this.” Ha!

If you can handle servers looking oddly at you when you say, “No box, please, I brought my own,” imagine how much Styrofoam you can keep out of the landfills!

I won’t tell you it’s easy to remember to get containers in your car and then bring them into the restaurant and then get clean ones back into your car for next time…but boy, do I feel like an eco-super heroine when I do! Here are my reusable take-out container tips for restaurant eating.

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