This is a sponsored post. All opinions are my own. The food in this story was donated. For more information, see my disclosure policy.

I recently teamed up with Glad Food Protection to take the #SAVEITSUNDAY pledge to not only help eliminate food waste in my own kitchen, but to show you some cool and creative ways you can reduce food waste in yours.

What is the #SAVEITSUNDAY pledge?

Well basically, it’s about loving food more and wasting it less, one day at a time.

When I started this challenge and partnered with Glad, I really thought I understood how much people {myself included} were wasting. I didn’t. I had never quite grasped what it really looked like. Until now.

American families waste about 25% of the food and beverages they buy annually. That’s a fact. The estimated cost of food and beverages thrown out by the average American family each year is around $1,500. Sadly, that’s a fact too. FIFTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS. That means people are throwing away and wasting more food than I’ve spent in an entire year to feed my family. Blows. My. Mind.

It’s easy to turn the other cheek and ignore the problem until it’s staring you in the face. Until you see what $1,500 in food waste looks like. Until one thousand five hundred dollars’ worth of food is sitting in your kitchen. It’s overwhelming really. And it’s a wake-up call I hope echos to each of you.

When I ventured out with Glad’s education grant for $1,500 to see exactly what this amount of money in food waste looks like, I wanted to make sure I covered all my bases. I know we all shop differently. We all frequent different stores and have different eating habits and spend our food budgets differently. So I shopped at 10 different stores, spending $150 at each on a variety of food products.

Grocery Outlet – I was able to get the biggest bang for my buck here. I had to pick through a lot of scratch and dent items and ignore expiration dates a few times, but I was able to get a solid variety of items.

Winco – Winco continues to be my favorite non-couponing store to shop at. Huge selection. Great stock. Excellent prices. I bought a few higher ticket items here including bulk sugar, salmon and a few hams.

Walmart Super Center – I’m not typically a Walmart shopper, but I knew, because they are the nation’s #1 retailer, I had to put them on my list. Lucy the Puggle Dog couldn’t have cared less about what I bought there, with the exception of that pineapple.  Pretty sure she thought I bought it for her.

Pike Place Market – The most expensive trip, but one of my favorites. All of the products I purchased were local. I knew where every item was grown, processed, packaged, etc. Everything was organic and non-GMO {well, except maybe those cookies and the pasta sauce}.

Amazon Grocery – A random assortment from Amazon. A little of this and a little of that. Shopped in my pj’s so it was my favorite buying experience, as always.

Vitacost – Vistacost.com is a great site for getting specialty and organic products shipped right to your door. Shipping is always free if you spend more than $49, so that didn’t cut into my $150, and there were some great sales on some great products.

Costco –  I had a plan going into Costco so I wouldn’t blow the entire $150 after getting distracted by all the awesomeness in the store. I stayed focused and, as a total bonus, had a full lunch consisting of a bunch of random samples. Score!

Filbert Acres in Puyallup, Washington- Filbert Acres grows according to organic standards & specializes in quality pork, vegetables, strawberries, cut flowers & pumpkins. I just hit them up for meat, but they have an awesome CSA shares program that features the best, freshly harvested produce. I even got to hang with the farmer/owner too!

Heritage Pork- This is all the meat I snagged from Filbert acres. I’d say that’s a great haul of quality meat for $150!

Trader Joe’s – I just love Trader Joe’s. It’s healthy organic foods at Winco prices. Sweet!

Whole Foods – I was a little worried I’d only be able to walk away with an item or two from Whole Paycheck, ahem, Whole Foods. But I was able to make my $150 spread a little further than expected. Plus, I know the quality of the products purchased here is excellent.

And there you have it. Grand total of $1,500 in food. That’s what it looks like. Now that might not look like the type of foods you waste, but I guarantee you’ve chucked something pictured in that image above. The magnitude of that food waste was shocking. That’s the average amount of food you, me and our fellow Americans waste every year. It’s appalling.

Once I began to grasp what $1,500 worth of food waste actually looked like, I began to get angry; at myself for not being more diligent and at our country in general for not caring more. I began to realize that, if we would just take a few extra minutes a day, or just be a bit more mindful, almost every last bit of that food could be saved. Simple things like properly protecting your fresh foods the day you buy them with food protection products like GladWare and ClingWrap, which have minimal costs, can help you save in more ways than one.

Can you image what it would look like if even a portion of the readers on this site decided to really make an effort to reduce or eliminate food waste?  I know so many people who are struggling just to put a meal on the table and so many more who don’t even think twice about tossing unwanted, and perfectly usable food just to create space in the fridge. What if we found a balance there? What if the ones with excess or even simply enough made a few small changes, and suddenly, there was plenty to go around?

It’s not that far fetched of an idea. And it can start with you. {FYI – The food in this story was donated.} 🙂

By saving and preserving that $1,500 in potential food waste through proper food storage protection and mindful eating habits, we could instead bless charities like the Family Renewal Shelter {shown above with their therapy dogs} and Local Food Banks. Bins upon bins, representing annual food waste, instead driven to be donated to those truly in need.

I’m up for the #SAVEITSUNDAY challenge. Will you join me?

~Mavis

For more information about the #SAVEITSUNDAY Pledge and how you can help, head on over to SAVEITSUNDAY.com. You can also follow Glad on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest.