Thanksgiving means spending time with family and friends and, of course, enjoying foods like turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. But much of the food that’s grown, sold, and prepared for holiday feasts—as well as everyday meals—doesn’t actually end up on people’s plates. It gets thrown in the trash instead.
According to new findings from the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group based in New York City, as much as 40 percent of the food produced in the U.S. never gets eaten. The tossed-out food is worth about 1,500 calories per person per day—almost enough to feed an additional person. All that waste adds up to a staggering $165 billion annually (see The Foods We Waste).