Food Waste Prevention Week 2026: Ways to Succeed in Portland

It’s back! Food Waste Prevention Week 2026 is almost here—it starts on Monday, September 28 and goes until Sunday, October 4, 2026. Last year it was in April; this year it moved to autumn. This is a great time to focus on the timely topic of food waste, especially in today’s economy when food is noticeably more expensive than it has been in the recent past.

Here are some of the things to know and helpful ways to curb your own food waste.

Food Waste Prevention Week 2026: Some Background

Last year I wrote a bit about how Food Waste Prevention Week came to be:

“In 2018, California launched their inaugural Food Waste Prevention Week, which focused on “raising awareness about the need for us all to get on board with changing the behaviors that lead to squandered food.” In 2020, environmental educator Elaine Fiore and her team in Florida met with those California founders and launched Florida Food Waste Prevention Week in 2021. And in 2022, it went national—including in Oregon.”

And in 2025, “the movement grew significantly, with over 700 partners from 49 states and 22 countries joining forces to drive real cultural change around food waste.”

Oregon Partners for Food Waste Prevention Week 2026

According to the Food Waste Prevention Week global partner map, there are 29 partners in Oregon this year, mostly in the Willamette Valley. They are in Ashland, Beaverton, Bend, Cornelius, Corvallis, Eugene, Florence, Grants Pass, Hillsboro, Keizer, Lake Oswego, Lincoln City, McMinnville, North Powder, and Portland.

Portland partners include Oregon governmental entities: City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, Oregon DEQ, and Metro Regional Government. The nonprofits Lloyd EcoDistrict, Milk Crate Kitchen, Urban Gleaners, and Waste-Free Advocates are also partners this year.

In the western suburbs, Leanpath in Beaverton, Oregon Climate Education Hub (SubjectToClimate) in Lake Oswego, and Washington County Solid Waste and Recycling in Hillsboro are partners.

International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste Reduction

If you remember earlier, I wrote that this week moved from April to autumn. That was done to coincide with International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste Reduction on Tuesday, September 29. In 2019, the 74th United Nations General Assembly designated this day as such (resolution A/RES/74/209). It recognizes “the fundamental role that sustainable food production plays in promoting food security and nutrition.”

Food loss can happen early on in the process: at the farm. We are seeing reports of food not being picked in some places because of the lack of enough farmworkers, and things like the pear psylla pest infestation on Oregon’s pear orchards. Food loss can also happen in storage (e.g., insects, vermin, mold) and in transit (e.g., truck spills).

Food waste can happen at the retail level (in shops and stores) and at home.

Food Waste Prevention Week 2026: Webinars

Throughout the week, there are webinars to attend, “featuring leaders in food waste prevention, recovery, and composting across multiple sectors.” Last year’s webinars have a dedicated page, and there’s even one webinar from The City of Gresham’s Solid Waste and Sustainability team (in Spanish). I did not see any of the webinars featuring persons or organizations from our neck of the woods, but the topics look great.

Food Waste Prevention Week 2026: How To Intervene

Food waste can happen, as I mentioned above, at the retail level and in the home. I, myself, am guilty of food waste and know I can get better at not being so wasteful. While I can’t speak for how supermarkets, grocery stores, corner stores/bodegas, co-ops and farmers markets handle food waste, looking at what each of us can do at home individually is worthwhile.

The Lloyd EcoDistrict has a nice summary of ideas; here are some highlights. First, let’s look at why you might want to curb food waste.

Methane, Composting, and Odors

To start, food waste contributes heavily to greenhouse gas emissions, which is something we’d like to avoid. This is because disposing organic waste in landfills creates methane, the second most notable greenhouse gas after CO₂. Methane is shorter-lived than CO₂, but while present it can quickly trap a lot of heat and is 28 times more potent as CO₂.

A solution to avoiding food waste in landfills is to compost, which breaks down food via a variety of microorganisms. Thankfully, Portland has a pretty robust household/curbside composting program going on. You can also compost at home on your own, too, either in your backyard or inside your home with vermiculture.

I had a worm bin for many years in my apartment in NYC; it was very effective in breaking down food scraps and when I’d open it up, it smelled like a forest; no stank. I am considering starting one again. OSU Extension has some helpful resources on this topic. There’s also a webinar from last year‘s Food Waste Prevention Week on worm farming (vermiculture)

Additionally—real talk—food waste stinks, literally. It smells up the refrigerator and stuff get slimy, and that’s not something that’s very pleasant (wasted food goes into the compost, so it’s not all lost).

Shopping To Avoid Food Waste

A way to avoid food waste is plan ahead what you buy to avoid overbuying or purchasing extra stuff that ends of wasting away before you could use it. You can shop via any number of supermarket apps, which will include deals/coupons and ways to create shopping lists. There’s also the flipp app, which brings together circulars and their sales.

Our friend Bryan M. Vance is also looking out for you through his work at Stumptown Savings, where he highlights the deals at the supermarket each week. He’s very dedicated, having created some tools, maps, and he visits grocery stores weekly to track pricing for 20 products.

You can also go old skool and make a paper grocery list. I keep a digital list in my Notes app, but sometimes I use the back of an envelope from junk mail on which to write my grocery list.

Too Good To Go also comes to mind, an app that helps you connect with businesses that sell extra food to consumers at a discounted price.

Storing Food

After you shop, you have to store your food, and perishables will be the first to fall. OSU has guidelines on proper refrigeration of food and proper freezing of fruits and vegetables. OSU also has a guide to storing food for safety and quality.

You Have Extra Food: Don’t Let it Become Food Waste

Extra food could mean extra ingredients or extra servings of prepared food. Additionally, the Food Waste Prevention Week 2026 theme is “Food Heroes in Your Neighborhood,” which spotlights the local people and organizations doing the work. Here are some solid organizations helping to curb food waste and feed those who are hungry. A big thanks to all those who stock the free fridges, too (more on that later).

Extra Ingredients

For extra ingredients, you can donate them to food rescues like Milk Crate Kitchen and Blanchet House, which accepts fresh, unexpired/soon-to-be expired ingredients Monday to Saturday.

There’s also The Portland Food Project. How does it work? “On the second Saturday of every even month our Neighborhood Coordinators pick up bags of healthy nonperishable food that neighbors have left outside their front doors.” Sign up here to participate.

The Portland Fruit Tree Project is gleaning organization that will help you out with harvesting and donating your tree fruit—ingredients at the source.

I recently learned about Ample Harvest, which targets gardeners with surplus harvest and where they can donate it to. Additionally, I took a look at the Olio app, which started as a place to share food, but at least in the Portland area, it’s pretty dead, so I don’t recommend it.

Extra Prepared Food

For extra prepared food you may have on hand, there are also options. Blanchet House, again, will accept uneaten, unopened home-baked goods like cookies; unopened catered dishes, too. Urban Gleaners will accept donations of prepared food and will redistribute it to those who need it while experiencing food insecurity.

Free Fridges

The network of free fridges and pantries in Portland. Find one on the map and drop off extra uneaten prepared food or ingredients. Food must be in sealed containers. There’s one in my neighborhood that is used frequently.

Foraging and Diving

This is a category that is less conventional, but contributes to food waste prevention. Here is what I wrote about them last year.

Falling Fruit

This site is basically a map of locations where you can find the “overlooked culinary bounty of our city streets.” This ongoing project was built for and by foragers, and information on it is crowdsourced by people like you and me. It’s very easy to use and there is a surprising number of publicly accessible fruits, nuts, herbs, and more in our city. Pick it before it goes to waste! They also have an app you can find in the App Store or Google Play.

World Dumpster Map

AKA a Freegan Map, this is part of the Falling Fruit project, but about dumpsters and the potential bounty within. There is a shocking amount of food that is wasted in these dumpsters.

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You can take a look at the Food Waste Prevention website to learn more about broader topics in the food waste sphere. I hope this little roundup of resources is helpful to you and will assist you in curbing your own food waste (myself included). If you have idea or if I have missed options, please comment in the comments or on social.

Food Waste Prevention Week 2026
Monday, September 28 to Sunday, October 4, 2026
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