According to the Gospel of Luke, when Jesus was resurrected from the dead and appeared to his disciples, he said, “Have you anything here to eat?”  He must have been really hungry after being dead for three days!  In that spirit, as Easter approaches, I’m challenging all of you–Christians and everybody else–to do what you can to see that all the food gets eaten and appreciated.

The only rules for this challenge are to look for food that might go to waste, make use of it, and report back after Easter (March 27, 2016).  You might start right now and do everything you can for the next nine days, or you might focus on it just on Easter Sunday.  You might serve the salvaged food at a homeless shelter, donate it to a food pantry, turn it into something for your holiday celebrations, give it to that recently-dead guy who suddenly appeared among you, or just incorporate it into an ordinary meal for your family.  You might be scavenging leftovers from huge church or family events, or you might be a non-observer of Easter spotting waste in your ordinary routine.  It might be tons of food or just that sandwich you couldn’t finish at lunch.  You might write a whole article about the food you saved or just post a brief comment here.  Whatever you do to reduce food waste, you will be making a positive difference!

For inspiration, here’s how I made use of leftovers from my church’s Holy Week events three years ago, and here are 70+ recipes and tips for reducing food waste.  Although I didn’t post about it, last year I made more than one gallon of fruit sauce by simply putting fruit left over from church into a soup pot, attacking it all with the immersion blender, and then cooking it–we had delicious fruit sauce with our yogurt and granola for breakfasts for a couple of weeks!

What will you serve if Jesus shows up at your house, asking, “Have you anything here to eat?”–fish fingers and custard?  I look forward to hearing about it!

Please share this challenge anywhere and everywhere you like!  I’m linking up to Faith Filled Friday and Real Food Friday and That Friday Blog Hop and Friday Finds and Favorites and No Rules Weekend Blog Party and Motivational Monday and Thank Goodness It’s Monday and Meandering Monday and Hearth and Soul Hop.  (I’m trying out some new ones here, so if you came in from one of these, please let me know!  And if you’re a reader who’s never clicked on one of these linkups, what are you waiting for?  Each one is like the title page of a magazine filled with articles by different writers from all over the Web!  You never know what great wisdom you’ll find–maybe some more frugal food-using tips?)