When a task, such as fighting food insecurity, is so large and far-reaching it can feel overwhelming to find a starting point. Maine is ranked 12th in the nation for food insecurity with a rate of 13.6% of Maine households being food insecure. This is around 170,000 adults and 45,000 children in Maine who do not have reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.

It has been said that even small steps, in the right direction, can lead to large changes. It is a few small steps that we encourage you to take during this Halloween season.

One of the ways that Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program fights food insecurity is by reducing food waste. As food donations come in, much of which would have gone into the trash if not donated, they are sorted by dedicated volunteers. These volunteers go through the donated food and pick out the freshest and highest quality produce and products. The food that is not deemed fresh enough to eat is either composted or offered to local farmers for animal feed.

This process of reducing food waste can be done at home also. Think about what you are throwing into the trash; now consider if any of that could have been composted or repurposed? It is estimated that about 40% of the food produced in the U.S. is wasted. There are many small steps that can be taken to reduce this extreme amount of food waste. For instance; we can reconsider what we are doing with our pumpkins. Of the about 2 billion pounds of pumpkins grown in the U.S. it is estimated that about 1.3 billion pounds is wasted every year. This is 1.3 billion pounds of produce going directly to the landfill.

The best way to reduce pumpkin food waste is by eating it! Pumpkins are a great source of a variety of vitamins and have other health benefits. Pumpkin pieces can be baked, seasoned and eaten as is or turn them into a pumpkin puree for a variety of cooking and baking projects: pie, bread, and soup. Save those pumpkin seeds from carving your jack-o-lanterns; pumpkin seeds are high in protein, and they taste great too. Roast your seeds and sprinkle with a little salt for a crunchy, salty, healthy snack.

Pumpkins are a great healthy snack for animals too. Dogs love fresh pumpkin pieces or puree. The pumpkin puree can even be used as an ingredient in making organic dog treats. Pumpkin adds vitamins and minerals to a dogs diet and is known to help with digestion. It’s not just dogs that love, and can benefit from, pumpkins though. An assortment of farm and wildlife creatures love to eat pumpkin too: pigs, goats, chickens, chipmunks, porcupines, deer, and more. Birds love pumpkin seeds as well as pumpkin pieces. A fun project to use that jack-o-lantern after Halloween is to turn it into a bird feeder. Use twine to hang the jack-o-lantern from a tree (or set on a stump/table). You can use the pumpkin seeds you saved from this exact pumpkin as bird feed. Watch as the birds, and most likely squirrels as well, eat the seeds and pumpkin!

Another way to use those pumpkin seeds you have dried and saved is to plant them. Not only will you have repurposed the pumpkin you bought, but you may not have to buy one next year. Plant the seeds in the wild and know that you have provided food for wildlife in the future.

When you have used as much of the pumpkin as possible it is time to compost it. Creating your own compost system is a great way to reduce food waste year-round while creating nutritious soil for farming/gardening. There are many options for an at-home compost system that are mess- and stink-free (mostly). The midcoast area also offers multiple pay-to-compost services. If you do not have your own composting system, perhaps a neighbor or local farmer does and is willing to let you add your pumpkin to their system. Adding pumpkins to the trash, and eventually, a landfill, does not allow the pumpkin to decompose naturally. The compressed nature of a landfill traps the gasses released during decomposition and causes harmful effects.

There are so many ways to fight food insecurity, and they are all the right way. It is not the size of the steps you are taking that matter, it is the direction in which you are going. Take the small steps. When you have taken enough small steps you will look back and see that you have traveled a long way and made a big difference in the lives of the people you passed along the way.

Due to the far-reaching effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, all community members are eligible to receive MCHPP services from the MCHPP food pantry and soup kitchen. The Food Pantry is open Tuesday 11-2 and 4-6, Wednesday and Friday 11-2, and Saturday 12-3. Lunch is available Monday – Friday 11:00-12:30 and Saturday 12:00-1:30. Both services are located at the MCHPP facility at 12 Tenney Way, Brunswick.

If you would like to volunteer, donate, or learn more about Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program please visit mchpp.org.

Giving Voice is a weekly collaboration among four local non-profit service agencies to share information and stories about their work in the community.