Eat Your Pumpkin
Looking for a scare this Halloween? Here goes: 30.4 million pumpkins will be bought for carving this Halloween, and of these a whopping 15.8 million pumpkins will go to waste, left uneaten. That’s £26.7 million worth of edible food! (Hubbub, 2023)
We’ve been tackling this problem since 2014 with our annual ‘Eat Your Pumpkin’ campaign, and this year, we’re going big! Will you join the pumpkin rescue and Eat Your Pumpkin this year?
The scary truth about pumpkins
Why? Because after carving, many-a-pumpkin’s innards and guts are simply thrown away. Their purpose as the infamous jack o’ lantern overshadows their true purpose – dinner! The gourd news is, now 3 in 5 people (59%) know you can eat your carving pumpkin. (Hubbub, 2023)
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Every year 30.4 million pumpkins are bought for decorating.
Yet many of them will be carved and not cooked.
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Only 1 in 9 always cook their pumpkin.
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15.8 million pumpkins are set to be wasted this year.
That’s around £26.7 million worth of edible food!
Saving carvings from the bin
Thanks to Pumpkin Rescue, the spooky story of the uneaten pumpkins has travelled far and wide, leading to lots of eerie-sistable pumpkin recipes and dishes coming to life to show people how to save those delicious carvings from the bin. From a traditional pumpkin soup and roasted seeds for snacks, to a coconut pumpkin cake, and even pumpkin kimchi! Sweet or savoury, we just want to see them eaten. Find these recipes in the e-book below.
- Nena Foster, Natural Chef
- Pumpkin Rescuer, Enfield
What difference have we made?
Since we first launched the campaign, as 'Pumpkin Rescue', in Oxford in 2014, it's taken the world by storm, saving pumpkins from the bin and shifting attitudes towards eating them.
From inspiring hundreds of community events in UK (and across the pond in USA and Asia) to reaching millions online with press and social media campaigns, attitudes towards eating pumpkins nationally have shifted from 42% of the population thinking you can eat your pumpkin to now 59% in 2022. Sainsbury’s has also made the move to only sell edible pumpkins over carving ones, and we hope more retailers follow.
We’re not stopping there, we’re on a mission to make pumpkin eating as popular as pumpkin carving. Will you join and Eat Your Pumpkin this year?
It’s simple - eat your pumpkin! Too easy? Here’s how you can take it further...
- Spread the word. Check out our digital resource pack full of info and social posts, and help us spread the #EatYourPumpkin word online.
- Host an event. Whether you want to host an intimate pumpkin lunch with your family, a ‘decorate and dine’ class for your colleagues, or a giant pumpkin festival, we've created a 'How To' guide and resources to help you every step of the way. Download our community resources here.
Eat Your Pumpkin is supported by the 5p Cup Charge. In 2018 Starbucks introduced a 5p charge on single-use cups in the UK. The 5ps are donated to Hubbub to run campaigns that build stronger, greener communities.
See Hubbub in action
From Community Fridges that cut food waste to Ballot Bins that halve cigarette litter, our campaigns show what taking action that's good for the environment looks like in practice.
Hungry for more?
We do more than food waste. Ever wondered what to do with your old clothes, or how to make your smartphone last longer?