Carrot-tops, potato peels and vegetable stems often end up in the trash. But during an upcoming workshop at the College of DuPage (COD), those scraps will become some of the main ingredients. On March 13, the Field Studies, Study Abroad and Global Education office will host the “From Peels to Plate: Zero-Waste Cooking Workshop,” which will teach participants how to reduce food waste while preparing meals.
“It will not be just another presentation一it will be us actually cooking,” Field Studies program specialist Camila Fernandez said. “We will be given ingredients, and we’ll try to use every single part of them to learn and create a meal.”
Participants are invited to work in cooking stations where they will prepare recipes using ingredients that are typically discarded while learning techniques to reduce food waste at home. From 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. in the Culinary and Hospitality Center (CHC) room 1010, the workshop will be led by culinary arts professor and chairman David Kramer.
Kramer said professional kitchens often use ingredients in an efficient way to reduce both cost and waste.
“In a kitchen, food has a limited shelf life,” Kramer said. “Our goal is to use it at its best and utilize as much of an ingredient as possible. We look at it as money but also waste that is going into the garbage. Our thought was to present a way to look at full or almost total utilization of a product. We’re hoping it will change how we view food and not be so wasteful.”
During the workshop, participants will learn practical ways to use ingredients that may otherwise be thrown away, Kramer said. Food will be provided throughout instruction.
“For example, we’ll show participants how to use a bunch of carrots,” he said. “The carrots can be steamed, roasted or eaten raw. Yes, the peels can go into the compost but the green tops can be pureed and made into a pesto or baked in a hot oven to make crispy.”
Fernandez said one of the goals of the workshop is to help participants see how small changes in their everyday cooking habits can make a difference.
“We all understand that wasting food is also just wasting money,” Fernandez said. “Groceries are very expensive right now. We hope people can learn how to do these small changes at home that can benefit the planet in general.”
This event is the second of five surrounding the Global Goals Event Series, which highlights sustainability initiatives connected to each of the 17 global development goals established by the United Nations in 2015. These goals aim to address global challenges such as poverty, hunger and climate change by promoting sustainable development and reducing harmful environmental impacts by 2030.
Fernandez said the initiative encourages students to recognize how local actions can contribute to broader global efforts.
“Society nowadays is very individualistic,” Fernandez said. “You tend to think only about what’s happening in your own circle and feel that whatever you do doesn’t make much impact on a global scale. But everything we do locally has a global effect. Local is global. Even small actions can change the course of what’s happening. This series is just the start of what we hope will become larger institutional changes at COD.”
Food insecurity remains a growing concern across the United States, as large amounts of food are wasted each year. In DuPage County alone, nearly 10% of residents report experiencing food insecurity. According to national estimates, roughly 30–40% of food produced in the U.S. is discarded.
“Sometimes people imagine food insecurity means you have no food at all, but it’s really a spectrum,” COD Fuel Pantry adviser Linda Kozlowski said. “If you’re limiting meals or don’t have enough food to live an active, healthy life, that’s food insecurity.”
During the event, participants will prepare extra meal kits that will be donated to the Fuel Pantry. The pantry provides food and basic necessities to COD students, faculty and staff who may be experiencing food insecurity.
“Students can shop for free groceries once a week so they can take that money and fix the car, buy the books and stay in school,” Kozlowski said.
After federal policy changes placed additional pressure on food assistance programs, the Fuel Pantry recorded a spike in visits from the following year. Kozlowski said the pantry distributed more than 80,000 pounds of food in 2025.
“Before I started [three years ago], there were about 70 visits to the pantry every month,” Kozlowski said. “Right now we’re getting a solid 800 to 900 visits every single month.”
Kozlowski said zero-waste cooking encourages people to rethink how they prepare food and reduce unnecessary waste in their kitchens.
“Things like potatoes一you see a lot of recipes that peel the potato, and I’m like, ‘You’re removing the fiber and some of the really good stuff,’” Kozlowski said. “You don’t always have to peel everything. Carrots, you know, just scrub them, but you don’t have to peel layers away. We don’t have to create all this waste sometimes.”
To register for this free event, visit the Office of Student Life in Student Services Center (SSC) Room 1200. To learn more about other events in the series, visit the Field Studies, Study Abroad and Global Education office in the Berg Instructional Center Room 3520, or contact the office at [email protected]. Spaces are still available.
