Every November, Jennifer Seifert stared at her leftover Halloween pumpkins and felt one thing: guilt.
“They’re still perfect and Thanksgiving is here,” she recalls thinking. “What am I gonna do with them?”
So, in 2017, while buying eggs from a farmer in Virginia, she asked if he might have any use for perfectly good, weeks-old pumpkins. “He said, ‘Of course, my animals would love them!’”
This friendly conversation was the seed of Pumpkins for Pigs, an online list of US farms that take pumpkin donations. Five years later, the website now features 360 farms from 37 states – including eight in Georgia.
“I want people to realize how sustainable and doable this is,” Seifert said.
Farms do not accept pumpkins that have been painted with oil-based paint (water-based is okay), have been bleached or are rotten.
Each year, the United States grows over two billion pounds of pumpkins, according to the USDA. Some estimates show that over half of that goes to landfill rather than being composted or eaten.
Like all food waste, pumpkins rotting in landfills create methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.
Fortunately, pigs, chickens, goats and other animals happen to adore pumpkins.
Using the weight of an average pumpkin, Seifert estimates that farms that are registered on Pumpkins for Pigs diverted roughly 540 tons of pumpkins from landfills last year.
Some zoos in the United States take pumpkin donations, too.
The Oakland Zoo, for instance, works with local pumpkin patches to take their surplus.
But in years when the patch donations are slim, the zoo encourages Bay Area residents to donate their uncarved pumpkins.
Elephants and hyenas especially love the orange fruit, said Isabella Linares, the zoo’s marketing manager.
Nine years ago, a London-based environmental organization called Hubbub started an “Eat Your Pumpkin” campaign.
Pumpkins are high in vitamin A, fiber and antioxidants, such as beta carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin. Roasted pumpkin seeds, which make a yummy snack, are a rich source of zinc and magnesium, and a good source of protein and fiber to boot.
In the years since, Hubbub has run pumpkin festivals and pumpkin parties in the weeks before Halloween.
Though that died down during the pandemic — when they ran a mostly virtual campaign — it returned with a bang this year. In addition to a slickly produced “No Pumpkin Left Behind” video, which played before spooky movies in theaters across the UK, the charity got social media influencers to share recipes and cooking tips on Instagram.
Back in the United States, Seifert suggested calling vendors from your local farmers’ market if you can’t find a farm listed on the Pumpkins for Pigs website.
“But most important,” she said, “do donate them. Don’t let them go to waste!”
Hannah Wallace writes for Reasons to be Cheerful, a nonprofit editorial project that strives to be tonic for these tumultuous times.
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