Reducing Food Waste: Stephanie Lentz of Scoop Marketplace On How They Are Helping To Eliminate Food Waste

At Scoop Marketplace, there are many things that we are doing to reduce food waste. First of all, we allow people to choose the quantity that they are purchasing. So if a customer only needs half a teaspoon of a certain spice for a recipe, we get out the measuring spoons and give them half a teaspoon. Or if you want to sample a new kind of tea, you can buy just enough to make a cup or two to try it out — you don’t have to commit to a whole tin full of a product that you may or may not enjoy.

It has been estimated that each year, more than 100 billion pounds of food is wasted in the United States. That equates to more than $160 billion worth of food thrown away each year. At the same time, in many parts of the United States, there is a crisis caused by people having limited access to healthy & affordable food options. The waste of food is not only a waste of money and bad for the environment, but it is also making vulnerable populations even more vulnerable.

Authority Magazine started a new series called “How Restaurants, Grocery Stores, Supermarkets, Hospitality Companies and Food Companies Are Helping To Eliminate Food Waste.” In this interview series, we are talking to leaders and principals of Restaurants, Grocery Stores, Supermarkets, Hospitality Companies, Food Companies, and any business or nonprofit that is helping to eliminate food waste, about the initiatives they are taking to eliminate or reduce food waste.

As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Stephanie Lentz.

Stephanie is a wife, mother of two, and owner of a zero waste grocery store in Seattle, WA called Scoop Marketplace. After becoming a mom, Stephanie took a particular interest in how her family’s daily habits were impacting the planet, and after learning more about plastic pollution, she realized it was time to make some drastic lifestyle changes. Stephanie created Scoop Marketplace out of a need for a grocery store that aligned with her family values and now enjoys teaching others how to do the same in their own communities through her Scoop Intelligence digital courses. She is thankful to have an opportunity to bring her passion and skills together by teaching people how to live more sustainably and take intentional action to build the world they want to live in.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Having grown up in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, I have always loved and appreciated nature, and I thought that I was pretty eco friendly. By the time I was in college, I was already starting to get a bit of a reputation as a hippie, but I soon realized that choosing to recycle wasn’t really enough to have a positive impact. After becoming a mom I started learning more about plastic pollution and the effect that microplastics are having on our planet. This sort of snowballed and I began to learn about the zero waste movement, plastic free, minimalism, and how choosing a plant based diet can significantly decrease our carbon footprint.

I was overwhelmed by the state of our planet. My eco anxiety was on high alert and while I had no idea how I could solve the problem, or clean it all up, I knew that I could stop contributing to the problem. So my family made some changes to our daily routines. We were able to significantly decrease the amount of waste that we were producing, but over time, I realized that going to the grocery store still presented a significant challenge. Even as plant eaters, we often came home with more trash than I thought should be necessary.

On social media, I noticed many stores popping up in Europe where people could bring their own containers and everything was package-free. I believed that a store like that would do really well in the Seattle area and was surprised that no one had built one yet. I ended up creating a grocery store that my family needed. One that aligns with our family values and provides our entire community access to package-free groceries. Fortunately, other people were looking for the same thing.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company or organization?

Choosing to start my own business was definitely way outside of my comfort zone, and the entire process over the past 4+ years has been a wild ride. I think a really important part of the process has been learning to acknowledge my own effort and progress. I tend to be very self critical, and extremely judgmental of my own performance, while at the same time, I’m teaching my audience how to “go green with grace” and “prioritize progress over perfection.” I just never feel like my own actions are enough and I tend to be so focused on my ever growing to-do list of things that I believe I must get done in order to really have a positive impact in the world.

Very early on in this journey, I was participating in the filming of a documentary with several other sustainability leaders in the Seattle area. At one point the interviewer asked something along the lines of “which of you is most zero waste?” We all immediately said, “Oh, definitely not me!” assuming that the other people were living some perfectly zero waste lifestyle while we were trying to figure out how to properly dispose of the occasional plastic tortilla chip bag or vegan butter wrapper. We are living and operating within broken systems in this linear economy, so there really isn’t any way to be perfectly zero waste. Sometimes we get overwhelmed by the state of the planet and think that nothing that we do matters, but each better choice that we make, even when a perfect solution is out of reach, is an action in a positive direction, and more will follow.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I’m really having trouble thinking of a “funniest mistake” related to reducing food waste. There are times when you say “no straw please” or try to find some other way to reduce waste in a situation and end up being given the straw and more single use products on top of that anyway. Those moments have taught me to give myself grace. I cannot beat myself up and wallow in guilt for every little mistake, and especially not in situations when I tried my best and the outcome was out of my control.

I think the most amusing moments would likely include my children. I have taught my children about the toxic chemicals on the paper used to print receipts, so they know not to touch them and remind me not to as well. One time when my son was probably 5 years old, he purchased a gift for his sister at the mall and after he paid for the item, the woman tried to hand him a receipt. He physically recoiled and said, “No, thank you!” firmly and walked over to me where he said, “Momma, she tried to give me a RECEIPT!”

His outrage in the moment was so adorable and I found it so interesting how that one little shift made such a difference in his experience. In our culture, people buy things and are handed receipts all day long. No one thinks anything of it and most people have no idea that they are touching something toxic and that the toxins can actually absorb right into their body as they hold that item. These receipts, while often completely unnecessary and frequently are immediately thrown in the trash, are considered a normal part of our daily experience, but because I taught my children to view them as unnecessary and harmful, they have a completely different experience. The good news here is that we can set a better example for the next generation. We can make it so that instead of having to unlearn all of our wasteful habits, they will see a sustainable lifestyle as “normal.”

How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?

It isn’t easy to define leadership, because while many would call me a leader, I have trouble seeing myself that way. I believe that leadership has to start with pure intentions. Someone who truly wants to see others thrive and to serve is best suited to be a good leader. I think it has to start with love, and compassion, which seems almost funny to me as I say it because in this patriarchal system, those are not words that would commonly be associated with a “good strong leader.” But is there any other way to serve? How can you genuinely lead and be truly good if you don’t want the best for those around you? Being a leader means making the best decision with the information that you have right now and being willing to take imperfect action for the sake of progress and growth. Being a leader means sharing the knowledge that you have gained to the benefit of those around you.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

It is so hard to choose just one life lesson quote! One that I have really been leaning into recently is “worry is a waste of imagination” — Walt Disney. I tend to worry about everything all the time. I spend so much time and energy allowing my brain to spin into some worst case scenario that may or may not ever come to pass. What often ends up happening is that the thing that I was so worried about that I made myself sick about, either never actually happens, or isn’t nearly as bad as I had imagined, so I just caused myself unnecessary suffering with the worry. I think the reason this quote really speaks to me is because it reminds me that I am creative and clever and I have an active imagination, and those powers can be used for good or evil, and it is irresponsible for me to waste them worrying, when I could be using them to come up with creative solutions to solve big problems and be a beneficial presence in the world. It reminds me of the power I can wield if I am willing to keep my thoughts in check.

OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Let’s begin with a basic definition of terms so that all of us are on the same page. What exactly are we talking about when we refer to food waste? Can you help articulate a few of the main causes of food waste?

Food waste is prevalent and has become a very normal part of how our country operates, and I think it stems in part, from people being so disconnected with their food. Most of us aren’t growing our own food, so we aren’t really aware of the effort and resources that go into growing that food in the first place, and therefore don’t value it as highly. As with many of the resources that we consume, people don’t take into consideration the journey that the food took to get to you (grown by a farmer, harvested, sold, transported to a facility for processing, put on a truck, traveled who knows how far, delivered to your grocery store, stacked on the shelves, purchased by you and brought home to eat or rot) and what happens to it if you don’t end up eating it (goes to the landfill and contributes to greenhouse gases or gets composted).

One big contributor to food waste is packaging. When we purchase predetermined quantities of packaged food, we aren’t necessarily getting to purchase the amount of food that we know we can consume before that food goes bad. So if I only need half of the can of tomato paste for my recipe, and can’t find another use for that tomato paste this week, and forget to put it in the freezer to save for another time…. That tomato paste will get moldy in my fridge and end up getting thrown out. When we get to choose our own quantities in reusable packaging, then we are much more likely to buy what we need and reduce food waste.

There is also the issue of people (is it just American’s?) thinking that their food has to look a certain way. Much of the food that is grown never makes it to the grocery store because it doesn’t look pretty enough so the grocers won’t purchase it — how silly is that? I can understand not choosing the apple that is really bumped and bruised — I’m not excited to eat that either — but I think it’s kind of fun to get an abnormal piece of produce that is still in good shape and ready to be eaten. I think this just requires a bit of education to help people find value in these foods. I also believe that there is a huge amount of food wasted by raising animals to eat. I understand that some people may eat animals as part of their culture and others may have relied on hunting to survive, but I believe it is irresponsible to use such a significant amount of our resources like water, clean air, land, and food, to raise all of these animals for people to eat. If we simply ate the grain that is fed to the cows, more people would be able to eat, and the impact of feeding people plants is far less than the impact of raising animals.

What are a few of the obstacles that companies and organizations face when it comes to distributing extra or excess food? What can be done to overcome those barriers?

We haven’t had very many instances where we needed to distribute excess food at Scoop Marketplace, so I haven’t had much experience with the obstacles encountered in these situations just yet, but I have heard from others in the past that sometimes there are health department rules that can interfere with this process. Certain regulations can make it challenging to share prepared and fresh foods with food banks and other organizations. If we have leftover bulk food that needs to be distributed, I believe that we can just package it up in our facility and give it away or sell it at a steep discount, but the rules may be different once we bring in more fresh and prepared foods.

Can you describe a few of the ways that you or your organization are helping to reduce food waste?

At Scoop Marketplace, there are many things that we are doing to reduce food waste. First of all, we allow people to choose the quantity that they are purchasing. So if a customer only needs half a teaspoon of a certain spice for a recipe, we get out the measuring spoons and give them half a teaspoon. Or if you want to sample a new kind of tea, you can buy just enough to make a cup or two to try it out — you don’t have to commit to a whole tin full of a product that you may or may not enjoy.

We prioritize education, so we talk a lot about food waste and help to bring the issue to people’s attention. Sometimes we don’t even realize how much value there is in the food scraps we are throwing out, or how easy it would be to preserve something before it goes bad. For example, in late summer, we might share social media posts telling people about simple ways to preserve the abundant summer produce like simply washing and chopping it and placing it in a jar in the freezer. People might be intimidated by the idea of canning, but chopping up a dozen local tomatoes and popping them into a jar to freeze for later couldn’t be easier! Of course, not everyone has the space to accommodate a freezer full of food, and I do recognize that I am privileged to even have the option.

I often share inspiration from my kitchen. If I have a bunch of kale that is wilted and not appetizing for a salad, I blend it up into a loaf of brilliantly green kale soda bread. Smooshy berries, bananas or stone fruit? Bake them into muffins! Blend them into a smoothie! We look at veggie scraps and suggest saving them in a bag in your freezer until you get enough to make vegetable broth with. Peeling and coring lots of apples? Did you know you can actually make your own apple cider vinegar? We show people that things like broccoli stalks and cauliflower leaves are actually edible and don’t need to be thrown out. People are often so thankful for these tips and eager to learn more. We also apply some of our other lifestyle tips to food waste starting with “use what you have” and “buy what you need” and often suggest that people do at least a little bit of meal planning and shop with a list to make sure they aren’t buying more than they can consume. With many of our dry goods, there is much less risk of food waste. You can take home a 25lb bag of beans and they will stay good for a very long time. Then you just cook however many you need whenever you want fresh beans.

Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help address the root of this problem?

I usually focus on the individual impact when it comes to building a sustainable future. There is so much that has to be done in regards to policy, and I am thankful to have friends who understand how that system works and provide us with resources so that we know how to take action when we need to. While there are definitely massive shifts that need to be made within our legal systems, we have a lot of work to do to change human behavior. Look at what we have normalized. We now mass produce disposable products that are meant to be used for a few moments, but many of them will remain on this planet forever. That plastic fork is never going to turn into organic material that nourishes the planet. But nobody thinks about that. We don’t wonder how the fork got to us or what will happen after we use it because we are taught that it is a convenience that is owed to us. We have to take more responsibility and be more intentional with the items that we allow to come into our lives and the ways in which we consume them. It shouldn’t be normal to receive handfuls of plastic cutlery, paper napkins, and little plastic containers of condiments any time you place an order for takeout. You should have to ask for those items and you should be charged extra for them. There are forks all around us. Pop into the thrift store and buy one for $0.50 that you can keep in your backpack — it isn’t that difficult to do.

I just realized that I have oh so naturally slipped into addressing plastic pollution instead of food waste, but it is the same concept. There are so many wasteful behaviors that have been accepted as normal in our culture. You hear people say that they don’t like leftovers, so they just throw them out. That can’t be a normal way of life. We need to either reduce the amount of food that we order or prepare for ourselves, or learn to find new ways to enjoy it . We need to go to farmers markets and buy their not-so-perfect looking produce because we know that it is still perfectly nutritious and that the average shopper is likely to leave that one behind and let it go to waste.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

Most of these lessons have more to do with my mindset than anything else, and my lessons are generally more related to single use products rather than food waste. I hope that is okay. Please let me know if you are looking for something different.

1. Done is better than perfect and one step in the right direction, however muddled and imperfect it may be, is positive progress. There are many times in my life where I have held back on an idea and waited to take action because I thought that the circumstances had to be just right. When I opened Scoop Marketplace, for maybe the first time in my life, I decided to just let people into my process, right in the messy middle of it. I had been sharing tips for low waste living on my Scoop social media channels for many months, and I was eager to connect with my customers and community in real life. The location that I was looking at for my store ended up falling through at the last moment, and suddenly I realized that I was going to have to figure something else out. Later that week, someone I knew was in a position where her business couldn’t quite afford to pay the rent of the space she was operating her business out of. I asked her if Scoop could move in so that we might share the burden of the rent, and we just went for it. I had dreams of building custom shelves and making it look amazing, but I didn’t have the capital to make such an investment and I didn’t want to make my community wait, so I decided to just use what I had and go for it. When I opened the doors of my first location on Earth day 2019, all I had was a few folding tables and some secondhand shelves. I was so proud and also a little embarrassed and worried that my customers would be underwhelmed and disappointed. A few days later, I went out and bought storage shelves from the hardware store, and as the weeks passed, I filled those shelves with all kinds of new products. Within one month from my open date, I had transformed my store. The shelves looked full and inviting, and my customers loved watching it grow and discovering new products every time they came in. I knew that if I hadn’t been willing to take imperfect action and just open with something, that there is no way I would have made so much progress in that first month — I would have still been planning and preparing, trying to make everything perfect. I remind myself of this experience all the time.
2. I wish someone had told me about reusable menstrual products sooner. When I first started reading about reusable menstrual products about 6 or 7 years ago, I was seeing things that said making the switch from disposable to reusable products would reduce my cramps and other uncomfortable side effects. I found it a bit hard to believe, but it was all true! The disposable pads and tampons that are most commonly used are made of cotton that has more pesticides used on it than most anything else that we come into contact with. And we put those WHERE???? Yes, we are putting those chemicals right into our bodies and in a very sensitive and powerful area. And those chemicals can really mess with us! When I switched to cloth pads and a menstrual cup, and eventually period undies, my cramps almost completely stopped and I went from bleeding for about 7 days, to only 3 to 5 days. It was amazing! And the experience overall is just so much more pleasant. It’s much more comfortable and you don’t ever have to worry about your pads making weird crinkling noises or anything. It can be a bit of an investment upfront to build your stash of reusable menstrual products, but it will save you so much money in the long run since buying disposable products over and over again really adds up over time. When I learned that reusable menstrual products even existed, I remember just being flabbergasted that they weren’t presented to us as an option when we learned about our periods and period products back in 5th grade — it’s definitely something we need to talk more about!
3. I wish someone had told me about the magic of aquafaba sooner! When I switched to a plant based diet, one of the things that I was most disappointed about was how using plant based ingredients would impact my baking. I was especially bummed because I had just mastered the art of making swiss meringue buttercream frosting, which is the most lucious, silky, smooth, fluffy, light frosting ever! Since it requires whipped egg whites, I figured I would probably never make it again. Fortunately, I discovered aquafaba! Aquafaba is the liquid that is leftover after cooking beans, and when people include aquafaba in recipes, they are usually talking about the cooking liquid from garbanzo beans. This stuff is full of protein and if you leave it in the fridge, you will notice that it gets quite thick, and it can be whipped like egg whites. Not only can I still make delicious, silky, smooth swiss meringue buttercream frosting again, but I don’t have to worry about how to safely manage raw eggs in the process! Aquafaba is one of those food things that I used to just dump down the drain, assuming that it couldn’t possibly serve a purpose. Now when I cook beans, I always save the cooking liquid and either add it to soups or portion it out into small jars and freeze it for my next baking adventure.
4. I wish someone had told me sooner how easy it is to grow our own food and how to do it properly. It is something that I have been curious about for a long time, but this was the first year when we had a yard that actually worked really well for it. All I did was purchase a few veggie starts, stick them in the ground, and remember to water them regularly — and they GREW! After about 6 weeks, I was really wishing that I had purchased more! It brought me so much joy to watch them grow and see the life cycle of the plant, and I enjoyed sharing the process with my young children. Our broccoli didn’t quite grow in the way that we expected, and since the crowns were so small, we kept waiting for them to grow and never ended up harvesting them. I loved watching as they suddenly shot up, sprouted yellow flowers, and became the number one spot in my yard for our pollinator friends to visit. I spent several late summer hours in our backyard just watching the bees flitting amongst the yellow broccoli flowers.
5. I wish someone had told me sooner that what I have learned about sustainable living and reducing food waste can really help other people. It’s interesting how we don’t tend to acknowledge the value in our own knowledge and experience. I assume that everyone knows more than I do and that the things I’m learning must be common sense and I’m just behind everyone else. As it turns out, I have an abundance of low waste living tips, specifically when it comes to running a low waste, plant based kitchen, that can really help other people. I can simplify the process for them and make their transition into a low waste lifestyle feel effortless, and enjoyable. This is how I can really teach people how to improve the quality of their lives while learning to walk more gently on the planet.

**After watching the sample “5 Things” videos, I think I might have done it wrong. I was focused on 5 things related to food waste and low waste living, but all of the other ones are about being a CEO. So I am going to include a new set below of others that are maybe more adaptable to either topic.

• You don’t have to live a perfectly zero waste lifestyle to have a positive impact and you don’t have to have all of the information to take action. Our quest for perfectionism will cause us to procrastinate for far too long. Be willing to take imperfect action and watch how the ripple effect changes your life and the lives of those around you.
• We are operating within broken systems and there is so much within this linear economy that is completely out of our control. Instead of allowing our Eco anxiety and guilt to consume us, we need to celebrate our progress and enjoy the little wins. This will keep our energy high so that we can keep moving forward.
• I am not alone. There are so many people who care about the planet and are working through these challenges. When we come together and share our struggles and triumphs, we can find comfort in community and accelerate our progress.
• I wish someone had told me sooner that what I have learned about sustainable living and reducing food waste can really help other people. It’s interesting how we don’t tend to acknowledge the value in our own knowledge and experience. I assume that everyone knows more than I do and that the things I’m learning must be common sense and I’m just behind everyone else. As it turns out, I have an abundance of low waste living tips, specifically when it comes to running a low waste, plant based kitchen, that can really help other people. I can simplify the process for them and make their transition into a low waste lifestyle feel effortless, and enjoyable. This is how I can really teach people how to improve the quality of their lives while learning to walk more gently on the planet.
• Taking things one step at a time and making small adjustments will have a bigger impact in the long run than trying to make a drastic change overnight and ultimately giving up because you can’t even meet your own expectations. Diet culture has no place in low waste living, where we start and stop and start and quit and shame ourselves over and over again. We have to take steps to build a lifestyle that we actually want to sustain. Building a sustainable future means building a life in which you can thrive because you live on a healthy planet, inside of a healthy body, and you have plenty of joy, pleasure, meaningful relationships and growth opportunities. Your sustainable future should feel expansive and full of opportunities to improve the quality of your life while you’re learning to walk more gently on the planet.

Are there other leaders or organizations who have done good work to address food waste? Can you tell us what they have done? What specifically impresses you about their work? Perhaps we can reach out to them to include them in this series.

I really enjoy following Anne Marie (@thezerowastechef) because she has such a lovely approach to addressing food waste. Her recipes are accessible and easy to follow and she is so matter of fact about the whole thing. She makes it normal for her family and speaks about it as though it is quite normal, which causes other people to jump on board.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I want to spark a movement in which we are building a sustainable future where we can all thrive. So many people think about “going zero waste” or “living more sustainably” kind of like diet culture. They are setting a date on their calendar to make the switch, and they are going to try it out, but if it doesn’t work or if it’s too hard, their old, familiar habits will be right there to comfort them. The idea of living this way feels restrictive to them and they’re not very excited about all of the changes that they are going to have to make even though they want to have a positive impact.

I want to flip that script. Our mission is to normalize zero waste shopping by teaching people how they can improve the quality of their lives while they are learning to walk more gently on the planet. When I talk about building a sustainable future, one in which I can thrive, I am talking about a future that I want to sustain. One where I live on a healthy planet inside of a healthy body, AND I have more joy, more freedom, and more pleasure. I believe that making a shift towards sustainability should be expansive. It should look and feel good and we should want more of it. This idea of consuming less and wasting less and being more conscious and intentional should feel expansive. When we are less caught up in having to deal with all of the possessions and trash and everything else that makes it into our space, we have more room to enjoy our lives. I want to make sustainable living fun and exciting and delicious. I want to make it simple. I want to take the guesswork out of it so that people can move through the process in a way that feels effortless, as though we are shedding the weight of our trash burden as we move through the process. This is an opportunity for us to build a more expansive and abundant future.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

Oh my goodness, that is a tricky question! There are so many people who I would be thrilled to have the opportunity to speak to. So many individuals who seem like really good humans and are well positioned to have a significant impact with the power of their voice. I have always wanted to meet Ellen DeGeneres. I love the way that she spreads joy and love and seems to geneuinely want to take care of people and be a beneficial presence in the world. I would be over the moon the meet Robin Roberts. I was so inspired by her TV show, Turning the Tables. I love the way that she created space for those beautiful conversations to unfold, and how open and vulnerable she was not just with her guests, but with the audience as well. I felt so privileged to even have access to those moments and have since made it a goal to meet her and share my work with her. What a treat it would be to make some of the recipes from my low waste, plant based digital holiday cooking course on Good Morning America and teach everyone how we can create new traditions for a sustainable, and truly delicious, future. We could talk all about how we can decrease our carbon footprint by swapping out some of the traditional recipes for more plant based options, and the importance of having food at the table that everyone can enjoy regardless of dietary preferences and restrictions. I am so in awe of Leonardo DiCaprio and the work he is doing to take care of our planet and give us all a future in which we can thrive, but I’m worried I wouldn’t know what to say to him!

How can our readers further follow your work online?

You can shop with us at www.scoopmarketplace.com (we have carbon neutral shipping available nation-wide) and follow our work on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest @scoopmarketplace. We also have a podcast called, Green Stuff, and offer educational services through www.scoopintelligence.com. We have a digital course to teach people how to open zero waste stores like Scoop, and a brand new plant based holiday digital cooking/baking course.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much, and we wish you only continued success.