annabelle breakey for hidden valley ranch

When Hidden Valley Ranch partnered with Top Chef’s Tom Colicchio on a new social media campaign to cut down on food waste, they asked photographer Annabelle Breakey to create an image that shows how beautiful ugly veggies can be.

Colicchio encourages consumers to shop smarter, turn dinner leftovers into tasty breakfasts or lunches, and most importantly, not to discriminate against less-than-perfect produce.

Hidden Valley’s campaign is called Taste Not Waste. Every time someone shares a photograph of “ugly” vegetables on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram using the hashtag #TasteNotWaste, the company will donate $1 to Great Nations Eat toward spreading the word about food waste in America.

Annabelle worked with Creative Director Shane Greenwood of the Clorox Company (HVR’s parent company) to create the photograph, which is headlining the campaign on Hidden Valley’s website and social media channels.

Almost 40% of the food produced in the U.S. ends up in a landfill, which creates dangerous methane gas; according to the Environmental Protection Agency methane is methane is 21 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. Some of that food is thrown away as leftover dinner scraps, other food goes bad because it’s not stored properly, and the vast majority of the food we waste in the U.S. doesn’t even make it to the grocery store because it’s bruised, misshapen, or oddly sized.

“It’s not just food that’s not being eaten—food waste is actually bad for the planet. I think it’s a really wonderful thing to bring awareness to this issue, not only for the industry, but for the planet as a whole,” says Annabelle.