Food Waste

Tips and Ideas for using those Thanksgiving Scraps and Leftovers

#WhyWasteWednesday

#WhyWasteFood Wednesday is a call to action to take those almost-in-the-trash food items and turn them into delicious meals!

At least 1.3 billion tons of food is lost or wasted every year around the world—in fields, during transport, in storage, at restaurants, and in our homes! If each individual made a call to action to stop their own food waste–the planet benefits, we have less hunger, and your own grocery bills will go down through the savings.

UN Food & Agricultural

Scraps: seeds, butternut squash peels, apple peels, vegetable fat, turkey carcass, giblets, pie crust

Ideas for Leftovers

Thanksgiving leftovers are a huge part of the holiday. A celebration of harvest, many spend time with family, and indulge in large spreads of savory and sweet dishes. Read about ways to reduce your Thanksgiving food waste here: https://foodfinders.org/2022/11/16/tips-for-reducing-your-food-waste-this-thanksgiving/. Even with steps to be mindful and take action against food waste, leftovers on Thanksgiving are unavoidable, and often sought after. Here are a few quick tips to make something new out of your holiday scraps and leftovers:

  • Use seeds and butternut squash peels as a crispy garnish for any soup or salad
  • Use apple peels with cinnamon, sugar, and lemon juice for baked crisps
  • Any scraps can be used for vegetable broth (freeze scraps for future broth, or make and then freeze broth)
  • Rendered or strained fat can be refrigerated and saved for roasting vegetables or sautéing ingredients for hash made with other leftovers
  • Simmer turkey carcass with some aromatics for an outstanding soup stock 
  • Giblets included with our turkey can be used as part of dressing or gravy 
  • Leftover pie crusts can be brushed with butter, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, twisted into any shape and baked for a quick, sweet treat

Check out all these and more in Food editor Joe Yonan’s piece on root-to-leaf and seed-to-stem cooking with fruits and vegetables.


Yonan, J. (2021, April 23). Perspective | cut waste and boost flavor with skin-to-seed recipes that use the whole vegetable. The Washington Post. Retrieved November 14, 2022.

If you have a recipe you would like to share with us for #whywastewednesday, please email christian.bearden100@gmail.com.

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