#FeedTheHungryFriday

A few years ago I watched the documentary Dive and didn't know what to do. The amount of waste happening in America was sickening to me - mostly because I recognized I was contributing to that waste. I determined to try and reduce the waste coming from my home. But my waste isn't the biggest problem. It's the waste that grocery stores and restaurants (and other institutions that make and serve food, like Universities) have at the end of each day. The docu Dive highlighted the waste of grocery stores but not restaurants. Restaurants - specifically fast food ones - tally up a crazy amount of waste each day. Items like hamburgers can only sit for so long before they are labeled unfit for consumption. Then they are discarded of and it's illegal for people to go into the dumpsters to retrieve them. It's so frustrating. It's another sign of the broken systems we have in America.

ANYWAY.

Food Rescue programs are starting to pop up. Many retailers are scared of being sued if food poisoning occurs or make excuses that it's illegal to participate in food rescue. Either they don't know or they are being lazy because The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act protects retailers and institutions when they participate. But there are places that are ready and eager to be part of the hunger solution. Read about the momentum here. 

Why food rescue?
In my home state alone, one in seven people are considered food insecure with a high likelihood of malnutrition and other nutrition-related illnesses. Actually, this isn't limited to my home state - that is a national statistic. The USDA estimates that up to 40% of our nation's food supply ends up wasted - in the trash. FORTY PERCENT! When we have 1 in 7 people hungry. So why food rescue? Because the majority of that forty percent is still good for consumption and shouldn't be going to waste when we have hungry people. A lot of it is pre-packaged which makes it perfectly fine for distribution and consumption. How food rescue differs from food pantries is that food rescue is mostly fresh and healthy foods, which is rare for financially insecure and homeless people to get.

Where does the food go?
In my home town approximately 30,000 pounds of food is rescued and redistributed every month. Our local food rescue organization partners with approximately 15 nonprofit places in town that serve food to the homeless, they rescue food every day and deliver it directly to these places for preparation, hand out, and consumption. They rescue food from donor businesses. These partnerships help the donating businesses contribute to their local community hunger problems and help the recipient organizations reduce their budgets and provide healthy, nutritious food for the people they serve. (source) Win-win!

Wondering if you have a food rescue program in your city and/or state? You can find out by clicking here.   Thinking about starting one? Click here to get some advice.   

Thinking you don't waste that much food? Take this quiz to find out if you do or don't!
Wondering how you can reduce food waste in your own home? Here's some resources to get you started.