World Food Day is fast approaching this Tuesday, October 16th.  Oxfam America uses this one day a year to help promote conversation about where your food comes from, who cultivates it, and how you can take personal actions that will make the food system more just and sustainable.

According to the Oxfam America website:

One in seven people goes to bed hungry every night. Not because there isn’t enough food, but because of deep imbalances in access to resources like fertile land and water.

Oxfam has launched the GROW campaign to build a better food system: one that sustainably feeds a growing population (estimated to reach nine billion by 2050) and empowers poor people to earn a living, feed their families, and thrive.

Here’s What You Can Do to Help:

1. Save Food
   Keep your fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator, instead of on the counter, so they will last longer.  Use your leftovers and plan your meals in advance.
   One of my favorite recipes which is good for usable leftovers and advance meal planning is Whole Wheat Waffles.
2. Shop Seasonal
   Buy fruits and vegetables only in season, or better yet – grow your own!!
   Here’s my recipe for Cheesy Spaghetti Squash, a vegetable that is currently in season.
3. Eat Less Meat
   Here’s my recipe for Vegetarian “Everything But the Kitchen Sink” Chili
4. Support Farmers
   Check out this recipe for Chocolate Almond Revolution Ice Cream: made with fair trade chocolate and almonds from Equal Exchange!
   

   Source: equalexchange.coop via Oxfam on Pinterest

5. Cook Smart
   Use the minimum amount of water to cook your vegetables, keep your smaller appliances unplugged when not in use and either multitask your oven or use something more energy efficient for cooking meals.
   How about my recipes for Crockpot Refried Beans and Crockpot Beans and Ham.

You can find more GROW method recipes at http://pinterest.com/oxfamgrowmethod.  Or if you have a recipe to share, you can pin it with the hashtag #GROWmethod to have it added to the cookbook.

Other things you can do are host a World Food Day dinner discussion (all materials can be found here) and/or snap a photo of your World Food Day meal on Instagram and tag it with #WFD2012.

So what are you going to do to help promote World Food Day?