April 24, 2015 by MICHAEL DOBIE / michael.dobie@newsday.com
Can we talk about food?
Yeah, I know we all love to talk about what we eat, but I want to discuss what we waste.
Some 40 percent of the food produced in the United States is not eaten. That's obscene. Look at it another way: We Americans throw out $165 billion worth of food each year. For the average family, it's as much as $2,300 a year. Wasted.
At a time when 1 in 6 of us struggles with hunger. How did we get to this point?
It's largely about the value we assign to things, and we don't assign value to food. It's pretty plentiful, relatively cheap, and most of us are disconnected from its production.
Once, we were in intimate contact with the food chain. We hunted and gathered, little went to waste. The same was true on the small farms that dotted our country. During the Great Depression, families rarely threw anything out, and the children of that era carried that mentality forward as parents. As kids in the 1960s and '70s, my siblings and I knew the leftover protein from dinner would be tomorrow's lunch -- sandwiches of meat loaf, meatballs, whatever. The bones from the chicken made soup.
Along the way, we lost that. We started prizing quickness, convenience, disposability and bigness in everything. Food was no exception. Freshness became a fetish. And now we get waste at every step.
Huge refrigerators encourage us to buy too much, and it spoils out of sight on the back of the shelf. Restaurants give portions too large for human consumption, and many of us send half of it to the trash. Grocery stores display only shiny, cosmetically perfect produce and throw out the rest. Farms toss "flawed" fruits and vegetables before they're sent to stores and restaurants in the first place.
The consequences are serious, beyond the financial losses.
Most uneaten food ends up in landfills and decomposes into methane, a nasty greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. And consider the wasted resources: Getting food to our tables eats up 80 percent of the water consumed in the United States, 50 percent of the land, and 10 percent of our energy, according to the National Resources Defense Council.
My wife and I grow fruits and vegetables. That's why this drives me -- and, I suspect, other home gardeners -- batty. We care for our plants from seed to blossom. We know what went into the cultivation. We get frustrated when something spoils before we pick it. We don't toss a bruised or spotted tomato; we slice off the blemish and devour the heavenly goodness. A misshapen eggplant tastes great off the grill.
Societally, changing what we're doing is an economic imperative. It's a moral imperative. It's an environmental imperative. It's a social justice imperative. If we could cut food waste by even 15 percent, that would be enough to feed more than 25 million Americans.
There are things happening. Some food banks and other groups are rescuing imperfect produce from farms and food with expiration dates that otherwise would be thrown out. In Europe and Canada -- globally, about one-third of food is wasted -- supermarkets are selling at discount prices misshapen food with creative terms like "naturally imperfect."
But we consumers must play a part, too. Shop more frequently to help buy only what you need. Repurpose leftovers. Realize food sell-by dates are largely about optimal freshness, not safety, and don't be so quick to toss. Donate extra food. Start a compost pile. Do something.
We all love food. But it's a terrible thing to waste.
Michael Dobie is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
Not only that, how much food to we stockpile that is never used? Do we need shelves and shelves of canned goods? I do not buy in bulk anymore, unless I am going to use in bulk. I found that if I over buy, then my tastes change and I no longer want to eat that or whatever. Better to buy smaller quantities of fresh food that I am going to use for the meal. I really try to avoid making too much and winding up with a lot of leftovers.
Here in southTexas, we have "Daily Bread" as well as the SA Food Pantry. The Food Pantry accepts and distributes donations of canned goods and fresh produce to local food pantries. Daily Bread is a group of volunteers who "glean" from huge vendors (Alamadome, Convention Center, etc.) the day after big events, where hundreds of people have been fed, but there are massive leftovers.
Using 5 gallon buckets lined with new (sanitary) tall kitchen bags, we'll pour trays and trays of refried beans, salad, breads, desserts, BBQ, brisket, chicken, etc. into the buckets; load them into 3-4 pick-ups, and take them to a "sorting" house. Using gallon zip lock baggies, we'll re-bag the food, and freeze it in 5-6 large freezers in the community building. Every Thursday, I take some of the food, and re-heat it to serve the community. About 30-40 people show up for a free meal - sometimes the donation jar will have $10, and sometimes it will have 50 cents. We use that to get the bags and baggies.
We "save" a lot of food, and feed a lot of super-low income families. During the summer, when the kids don't have free school breakfasts and lunches, we make sure there's always enough to send planned-overs home with them.
Wish more communities would do this. The local power company donates the electricty to run the freezers; the volunteers pay for their own gas to/from the venue (40-60 miles), but occasionally we'll receive a couple of gift cards to buy gas.
Wow Momala that is great. I know her Panera donates their left over bread products to feed the homeless & Starbucks takes their leftovers to the fire house.
I try not to be wasteful but I do stockpile canned goods & frozen food. I'm not even sure what is in the back of one of my freezers but I'm sure it has frostbite by now.
I always pick up a couple of cans at the market when they are collecting. Why go home to get some when they're right there?
Most definitely. I don't usually have cans in my car and I have no intention of driving back home...
(and that would be IF I actually went into a grocery store, because we all know the chances of THAT happening)
It also helps the store because people going in buy more than they intended in order to give away a portion. The locally owned grocery store here always has one of those events at the end of the month when they want to be sure to make their sales goal for the month. Its a sneaky way to get a nice bump in sales.
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Food lion has prepackaged donation boxes. They are about $10-$15 each. They have canned goods, dry goods, and coupons in them.
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