The holiday season is a time for gratitude, family, gathering, and delicious food — but it’s also one of the biggest food waste periods of the entire year. Between big meals, travel, celebrations, and overflowing plates, more food ends up in the trash between November and December than almost any other time. Research shows that over 300 million pounds of food are wasted in the U.S. during Thanksgiving week alone, and December isn’t far behind.
And sometimes, our most meaningful lessons about sustainability come from the smallest moments.
Recently, our son Wolf spotted a tiny patch of mold on one sweet potato 🍠 and immediately assumed the entire bag had to be thrown away. His reaction was so relatable — especially for kids raised on grocery-store “perfection,” where every apple shines and every vegetable looks flawless.
But real food isn’t perfect on the outside — and it doesn’t need to be.
Our song “Sweet Potato” with Basho celebrates exactly that, teaching kids to appreciate the quirks, bumps, wrinkles, freckles, and nutritional superpowers of this humble root veggie. If you haven’t heard it yet, it’s a fun one to play while cooking or cleaning up after meals.
That little sweet-potato moment with Wolf became a beautiful reminder of how we can teach kids (and ourselves!) to rethink what “good food” looks like… and how powerful small habits can be in reducing waste at home.
As part of our ongoing collaboration with the City of Boulder Climate Initiatives Team, Paige sat down with Sandy to come up with some easy, mindful, family-friendly ways we can all cut back on food waste this season:
Tip 1: Plan Not to Waste
Avoid overbuying by checking what you already have before heading to the store. Try planning meals around ingredients that are already in your fridge or pantry. Sandy loves typing a few random ingredients into a recipe search and seeing what creative meals pop up — a fun way to reduce waste and save money.
Tip 2: Use Smaller Plates
Especially for kids! Smaller plates encourage smaller portions, which helps prevent the dreaded half-eaten food scrape into the trash. You can always go back for seconds, but it’s much less likely that half-picked food will get saved for later.
Tip 3: Make a Leftover Plan
Leftovers only get eaten if there’s a plan. A few simple prep steps can make a big difference:
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Stock up on reusable containers
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Clear space in your fridge and freezer before the holiday meal
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Ask guests to bring containers so they can take leftovers home
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Donate unopened canned or shelf-stable foods to local pantries
Cooked meal leftovers aren’t always donatable, but pantry items almost always are.
Tip 4: If You Do Have Food Waste… Compost It!
When food scraps end up in the landfill, they create methane — a potent greenhouse gas. Composting keeps those nutrients in the soil, where they can actually help new plants grow.
It’s also a great chance to get kids excited about soil health. Our song “Save Our Soil” makes composting fun and memorable, breaking down what can go in the bin, what can’t, and why “thinking before you throw” matters. It’s a perfect soundtrack for sorting scraps or taking out the compost together.
A Small Moment, A Big Impact
Wolf’s sweet potato moment reminded us how powerful simple, real-life lessons can be. When we invite kids to slow down, examine food, ask questions, and understand where things come from, we give them tools to be more mindful — not just during the holidays, but all year long.
At Rainbow Socks, this blend of playfulness + science + nature is at the heart of everything we do. And thanks to our partnership with Boulder’s Climate Initiatives Team, we’re excited to share even more ways families can learn, laugh, and care for the planet together.