6 Reasons to Take Home the Leftovers

Restaurant portions reached ridiculous heights years ago. And despite many diners leaving behind significant amounts of food, that trend doesn’t seem to be reversing. Today, over-serving is a huge source of food waste, both in our homes and in restaurants.

As FoodHeroes, what can we do about this problem? 

We can raise awareness, start campaigns, ask restaurants to change their practices, or always ask for half portions when dining out.

Or, we can start taking home the leftovers!

Over-serving is a problem that needs to be solved. And we will solve it. It will take time and cooperation, but we are confident it will happen.

In the meantime, we can help lessen the amount of waste occurring by taking home (and eating) our leftovers.

Here are 6 reasons to start taking home your leftovers...

You paid for it!

Would you buy a pair of shoes and only wear one? Why buy a meal and only eat half???

It will absolutely end up in the trash.

Even if a restaurant donates or sells unused food, they can’t sell or donate food that has already been served to a customer. That’s just bad hygiene. Whatever you don’t eat will absolutely be thrown away, unless you take it home. And very few restaurants compost, so when we say “thrown away”, that means in a trash bag and off to a landfill.

A lot of resources went into producing that food.

Every resource that went into producing, transporting, distributing and preparing that food is also wasted when it is thrown in the trash.Now, those resources were already used up anyway, right? True. But if you take your leftovers home and eat them for a later meal instead of buying more food, you’re helping to change our collective bad habit of over-buying and over-serving.It may seem like a drop in a bucket, but enough drops will eventually fill any bucket.

Ready-made lunch for the next day!

If you only have a small portion remaining, you can simply pair it with a side salad, make it into a sandwich or wrap, add some rice or steamed veggies… whatever makes sense for what you’re bringing home. Bonus points if you pair it with other leftovers already in your fridge.

Reach your health goals.

If you’re trying to adjust your diet to reach certain health goals, committing to only ever eating half of what you’re served when dining out can be a helpful habit to adopt.

Set the example for others.

It might just slip your fellow diners’ minds to get their leftovers boxed up, or they may feel uncomfortable about asking for them. Be a leader! People are more likely to do something when they see others doing it first. Be that first person. Be a FoodHero.

Wanna really up your game? Come prepared with your own reusable container to package up leftovers. Why waste a takeaway container? Heroes reuse!