The ballad of the lentil.
If this week’s change was a movie, I think I would call it: No Lentil Left behind.
It would be the story of one packet of lentils, full of hope after being brought back from the supermarket shelf. A head full of dreams. Dreams of bolstering soups, adding body to curries, giving zing to samosas.
But that ended up at the back of the cupboard, forgotten and alone. Gradually buried under packets of rice and behind tins of tomatoes. A pack of lentils, that watched helplessly as it’s nemesis, the chickpea, enjoyed day and after day in the hummus-drenched sun. A lentils fight to be included in a meal. Any meal.
It is flippant, but this is not far off what happens in our house. Our store cupboard is the home of great intentions, that were never quite achieved. We fill our weekly shop with new fresh produce, struck in the habit that the priority order of meals begins with a showpiece ingredient such as a meat, fish or glamorous vegetable.
We are also perpetually short of time, and so we tend to fall back to familiar patterns. Chicken and this, something-on-it salmon. Even vegan meals are planned around buying something new at the centre, more than they are about hunting out the old. We try to use up waste focus on the fresh drawer, but forget the store cupboard. We assume anything in a cupboard has a shelf life longer than uranium.
The lentil not alone in our cupboard in the genre of unfashionable ingredients. Gradually, certain food items disappear to the back of the cupboard, to be found with regret a few years later. When we shop, we don’t pay enough attention to the corners of the cupboard. We can unintentionally stockpile tinned sweetcorn or fish without realising. We promise ourselves that it will never happen again, and then blink and history has repeated. We have the same disbelief that we bought those peaches three years ago.
For this entry, I am journaling about resourcefulness, and respect for food. We have made progress in reducing the food that we wasted from our fresh cupboards through being more resourceful. When we changed to more plant-based eating, it has reduced our consumption of commoditised foods. Yet, better purchasing is of no value if we don’t use the food. Waste, is still a waste. If we don’t eat the lentils because we don’t know how to soak them, then we are pretending to be more plant-based. If we didn’t buy the tinned tomatoes in the first place because we don’t need them, then we would not need to be resourceful.
Respect for food has never been more important. Food banks and community schemes are stretched in ways they have not experienced before. The items that lie dusty in our cupboards are the very items that food banks and schemes like it need. The majority of a standard Trussell Trust food parcel includes familiar items that we will recognise from our own cupboards. The overwhelming majority of donations comes from members of the public.
If more people need assistance from food banks, and if there less people moving around and able to donate, it puts a double strain on the demand for food, and the the supply of donations. If we all purchased a few additional tinned or long-life items for ourselves or our families that we don’t need, we have been adding to the problem.
It feels like a good time in our house, to empty out our store cupboards. To start to be honest with ourselves about what is in there. To make visible what we have, and make some decisions about what we can do with the products in there right now, and our choices in the future. To face the fact that we often make impulsive decisions, either out of good intention, whimsy, or because were were caught up in a wave of trend or panic.
Doing it, was also no more complicated than unloading it onto the nearest table. But it was also definitive and severe. It is more than glancing in the cupboard and making a few choices based on what was at eye level or was at the front. It was an all-corner, all-item unloading, and it took a good ten minutes to get everything out. We then divided everything into four usage piles, and a pile for composting or the bin.
The first pile were items that we use regularly, and therefore could go straight back into the cupboard. This is stuff like pasta, rice, kidney beans. Anything that we know use often and are in no danger of expiring before we use them. We all have these in our repertoire — those dishes that we go-to as batch meals, and that don’t spend too long in the freezer before you need to do them again. The only twist was that if we had more than two of anything, then the balance went into the pile for a food bank.
The second pile, was the items that are reaching the end of their shelf lives. Things we can and will create meals from, with some thought and consideration. These went onto a list, with expiry dates. We have committed as a family, to work through these items with imagination, and to make it fun. This pile included our friend the dried lentil. It included items that we might have bought in the past with a particular weekend treat in mind, only to reach for the take-out menu. Isn’t it strange that we don’t take time to prepare a katsu curry, even though it can be prepared in the same time it takes to phone in an order of katsu curry, and go pick it up.
The third pile, was an honesty pile. The pile that we have to admit to ourselves, were mistaken purchases. If we are honest with ourselves, these are items that we do not think we will use. For me, they are things that I wish I loved, but I don’t. Tinned fruit definitely goes into this pile, along with certain bean medleys. It was the hardest pile, because to admit this is to admit that we can be gluttonous individuals, who have become spoiled by the choices we have.
If you are hungry, this last pile might make you angry, and you would be right. We should not have purchased them on a whim, and without a plan. We are impulsive humans, and sometimes we act without real logic or even understanding in what we are doing. However, if this pile can immediately go to the local food bank, then we have at least made some amends. The only condition is that the product must be something that a food bank would appreciate and be able to make use from. Otherwise, it should go back to the previous pile. We should find a way that we consume it ourselves, in a responsible fashion.
The fourth pile, was a planetwise pile. Products we might want to consider using less or consider alternatives for. Based on sourcing, packaging, or other considerations related to production. It is an exercise in reading labels, which is something that we don’t do enough on cupboard products. It is considerations such as the fact that some pre-packaged products can be bought loose. It is a consideration of whether local or more sustainable alternatives are available. The result, was cathartic, quick and easy. It took about twenty minutes. There were only six things that were years out of date. The biggest piles were the items that we will use immediately, or with some imagination. We are not as bad as we think we are.
It also exposed some habits of stockpiling ourselves. Weird stuff such as poppy seeds, and pine nuts. We never ever have to buy a bag of bulgar wheat again.
I can recommend that we all do this right now. If we did, we could go a long way to removing the supply issues and the strain on our food banks. The items that food banks need right now, are not going to be fulfilled from corporate donations or supermarket schemes. They do not have to be solved through financial donations. They can be solved from our own cupboards, and pantries, without us even noticing. Ninety percent of food bank donations come from the general public. From you and I and from others like us who might have more in the cupboards than we need.
If you think a few tins does not make a difference, then consider this effort multiplied by hundreds, or thousands of households. We are all connected.
Food banks, are also more accessible than you might think. There are three Trussell Trust food banks within a few minutes drive of our house, and likely yours too. There is a good chance that your local church, your local supermarket, or your local convenience store takes donations. The nearest food bank could just be a stroll away.
It is likely that you can find a local food bank through an internet search or social media. Social media feeds from food banks may also tell you what is running low each week.
This is something we can all do right now, but in the end cannot only be a ‘right now’ activity. The pressure is not going to go away, and long after many of us might have returned to some kind of normality, many will not. This needs to become an ‘and’ in our lives. We need to donate now, and in the future. We need to audit our cupboards now, and every month or few months. We need to keep dropping an extra item in our shopping baskets now, and continue to do it when we can.
If we cannot donate regularly, there are also other, creative ways of helping right now. Thinking about when we shop, is one of those. Avoiding the end of the month, so that those who might be vulnerable or living on a budget can shop without the anxiety of unavailable staple goods.
And as with all stories, even this one can have a happy ending. We found an unopened bag of lentils and have put it in the bag to donate next week to the food bank.
So if our hero is looking for purpose in life, then feeding someone who is hungry is a far better outcome than feeding me.
