Ruth Gibson

The Community Church of Chapel Hill UU

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
511 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

23

meatless or vegan meals

consumed
UP TO

15

minutes

spent learning
UP TO

49

zero-waste meals

consumed

Ruth's actions

Electricity

Communicate With My Elected Officials

Onshore Wind Turbines, Offshore Wind Turbines

I will write or call 1 elected official(s) telling them not to support fossil fuel subsidies and instead support wind energy generation.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Transportation

Research and Advocate for High-Speed Rail

High-Speed Rail

I will spend at least 15 minutes researching and advocating for a comprehensive high speed rail network in my country/region.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Transportation

Improve a Bus Stop

Public Transit

I will improve a bus stop in my neighborhood by posting the stop schedule, adding seating or shelter, adding art or flowers, picking up litter, or implementing some other small improvement.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Zero-waste Cooking

Reduced Food Waste

I will cook 2 meal(s) with zero-waste each day

COMPLETED 19
DAILY ACTIONS

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Smaller Portions

Reduced Food Waste

I will use smaller plates and/or serve smaller portions when dishing out food.

COMPLETED 17
DAILY ACTIONS

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Keep Track of Wasted Food

Reduced Food Waste

I will keep a daily log of food I throw away during Earth Month Ecochallenge, either because it went bad before I ate it, I put too much on my plate, or it was scraps from food preparation.

COMPLETED 16
DAILY ACTIONS

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Reduce Animal Products

Plant-Rich Diets

I will enjoy 1 meatless or vegan meal(s) each day of the challenge.

COMPLETED 16
DAILY ACTIONS

Participant Feed

Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.

To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?

Ruth Gibson 4/30/2021 8:13 PM

Truthfully, I mostly chose actions that are already habitual (a daily meatless meal, no wasting food).Smaller servings of food helped me flatten the rising weight gain trend and has motivated me to make stringer commitment to getting back to a healthier weight. Perhaps because I have been paying more attention to environmental happenings around me, I noticed that the Farmer's Market is inviting people to bring in compostable food waste collection point. So I look forward to a greener disposal of egg shells, tea bags, apple cores, and dead flowers.

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Ruth Gibson 4/25/2021 1:03 PM

The zero waste and daily meatless meal challenges I thought would be pretty easy, because both are part of my usual MO. I don't do most of the cooking, except for breakfast, so I figured any time dinner and supper both had meat, I'd skip having bacon for breakfast. Usually supper is a salad and sandwich, also easily meatless..but sometimes instead if a sandwich, I have a leftover serving of yesterdays dinner. There have been a lot of leftover servings because of the Smaller Helpings part of the challenge. So this week on the day when I was in charge of the days meals, I planned for meatless dinner and said to myself "Bacon for breakfast!" And Gracious !! It was all gone green and mouldy. Well, half of it was, anyway. I ended up pitching out 6 slices of bacon.

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Ruth Gibson 4/16/2021 6:46 PM

We got a rotisserie chicken for dinner. Usually I save the bones to make stock. This annoys my husband a bit, and today I just went and let him throw away the bones.

Read More
- Laura Gilliom 4/19/2021 10:13 AM
  
  That's funny, Ruth. I annoy my family a lot with the stuff I save. :-)
  
  Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Food, Agriculture, and Land Use Zero-waste Cooking

In North America, up to 65% of food waste happens at the consumer level. Chef Steven Satterfield advocates for utilizing every part of a vegetable. How can you incorporate using an entire vegetable, including the skins, tops, and stalks during your next meal prep?

Ruth Gibson 4/16/2021 6:41 PM

I have stopped peeling carrots. When I get carrots from the Farmers Market, with the greens on, I either make pesto or give the greens to a friend who has a tortoise. Not everyone has a friend with a tortoise, though, and there's a limit to how much pesto one can eat. Lots of veggie skins and tops and stems fan go into a bag in the freezer, and when it's full, make soup sock.

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Ruth Gibson 4/09/2021 6:53 PM

Yesterday I wanted some pickles in the potato salad I was making, and found that one or two had actually started to go moldy on top...in spite of being in vinegar! How did that happen! But the rest of the pickles were perfectly fine, once I cut off the bad bits. About 3 inches of pickles wanted out of a nearly full jar. Shucks.

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- Ruth Gibson 4/16/2021 6:34 PM
  
  Store pickles.
  
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- Laura Gilliom 4/13/2021 4:06 PM
  
  Store pickles or homemade?
  
  Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Food, Agriculture, and Land Use Keep Track of Wasted Food

An average American throws out about 240 lbs of food per year. The average family of four spends $1,500 a year on food that they throw out. How would you rather use this money?

Ruth Gibson 4/09/2021 6:47 PM

Today I prepared kale and flounder. I buy kale in a large quantity, repackage it to reduce spoilage, and pick it over frequently. There was some flour left after breading the fish; I mixed it with butter and lemon juice to make a sauce for the fish instead of throwing it out.

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Ruth Gibson 4/02/2021 8:00 PM

The not wasting food is part of my DNA. When we have too much kale or other greens, before they go bad, I cook them and freeze single servings to use at breakfast. When we have leftovers from dinner, I save them to have for supper or breakfast. I don't even throw away orange or lemon peels, or onion skins, or coffee. Most vegetable scraps, like carrot and potato peels, or limp greens I save in the freezer til I have enough to make a nice veggie stock. Same with shrimp shells. I save bacon fat and use it in cooking later.

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- Ruth Gibson 4/16/2021 6:36 PM
  
  Alas, the kale hot ahead of me and I had to ditch about half a cup. I have suggested to my sweetie who does most of the shopping and cooking that from now on, we get kale on a fresh bunch instead of a huge bag.
  
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- Deborah Kim (Ecochallenge.org Staff) 4/05/2021 4:02 PM
  
  Such great tips for saving and repurposing food!
  
  Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Food, Agriculture, and Land Use Smaller Portions

While dishing food out, we tend to load our plates with more than we need. Using smaller plates helps to mitigate this. Aside from the environmental benefits, what other benefits might come from eating/serving smaller portions?

Ruth Gibson 4/02/2021 7:51 PM

One is less likely to accidentally over eat.

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