What is messy, happens all around us, is still full of life and opportunity, and should never be trash? ...Food waste!

Together, we’re making progress in collecting and analyzing data on food waste across our food system, giving us a clearer picture of its scale, causes, and impacts on our planet, communities, and wallets. Measuring food waste enables us to manage it and know how to respond; but changing habits is hard, and without the right setup to enable and empower each of us to act, reducing food waste can feel like another item on our to-do list in our already busy days.

That’s where the power of community and the most recent Food Waste Prevention Week (FWPW) comes in. What started as a passionate initiative in Florida has grown into a nationwide movement driven by dedicated partners and leaders across all 50 states. With online resources, events, K-12 school opportunities, and more hosted during the week of April 7-13th, each year FWPW makes food waste reduction accessible and easy for everyone—at home, in schools, offices, restaurants, and grocery stores.

How can we reduce food waste? Building bridges across communities to move from awareness and interest to action and change.

At World Wildlife Fund, we work across the food system nationally and globally – from farms and food manufacturing, to hospitality, grocery stores, and K-12 schools – to help communities and organizations to drive measurable, large-scale food waste reduction. Given that food waste occurs most at the consumption stage, WWF recently launched a Hidden Cost of Food Waste report to dive into what can truly motivate us to act in our everyday lives. The key? Meeting people where they are, when they’re ready. Behavior shifts aren’t one-size-fits-all, and the creativity in action is limitless: farm tours, cooking classes, employee engagement challenges, and school campaigns all fuel this effort.

Now enter FWPW, a powerhouse group pushing this momentum even further. This year the efforts reached new heights: the NBA flashed food waste awareness announcements on the jumbotron during games; grocery store checkout belts doubled as a food waste reduction campaign; and more than 200,000 students were encouraged to write their own piece of food waste poetry. Every touchpoint sends ripples – from farms to stores, classrooms to kitchens, and beyond.

With up to 40% of all food wasted globally and most food waste occurring at the consumption stage, the opportunity to reduce food waste, especially at home and within communities, is huge. Everyone decides what happens after they eat. Leftovers, feeding animals, composting, tossing it – FWPW is raising awareness around each of these choices, reimagining them to encourage the question, what if the easiest and most accessible options were recovery, reuse, and composting? It’s another tool in the toolbelt for building interest, driving action, and generating community involvement.

By bringing together communities, we can turn food conservation into the new normal, where surplus food is seen as a precious resource—that can first feed people, and then feed animals, create energy, and help grow more food—and never as trash. To do more, check out WWF's Food Waste hub, and visit Food Waste Prevention Week's website to start planning your involvement for 2026.