“I bought too many herbs for one recipe—how do I keep them from going to waste?”

“What can I whip up with these odds and ends in my fridge before they go bad?”

As a college student trying to balance a busy school schedule and maintaining a healthy eating habit, these questions plagued my mind everyday as I tried to figure out what I should be doing for my next meal. Furthermore, when time allowed and I decided to try a new recipe, I would often be left with an abundance of certain ingredients that I had no plan for. Before I knew it, these items would spoil, leaving me with a sense of guilt for wasting food.

Across the U.S, we waste between 30-40% of the country’s food supply, of that, household waste accounts for 40-50%. Annually, that adds up to more than 37 billion lbs of food that is thrown away. Not only is this extremely wasteful, the amount of energy and water used to produce, process, and transport this food are also gone to waste.

This inspired me to think of a solution that could address this issue, a tool that could help guide people cook while being more efficient and sustainable with their food resources.