One Meal at a Time

Today I'm blogging about something a bit more serious, the waste of food.  As a young girl I was expected to eat my dinner, except I never had much of an appetite.  I was the sort who had better things to do.  The great outdoors was always calling me.  So, I'd shove my food from this side of the plate to that...doing my absolute best to make it appear as if I'd eaten more than I actually had.  I must have asked my mom twenty times per meal, "did I eat enough, is it okay for me to go outside now?" 

My dad would set his newspaper to the side, eye my plate and point his finger while saying, "you know there are kids out there who are starving that would be grateful for that meal you have before you?" 

He of course was right.  My pops grew up during the great depression.  He often spoke of collecting a wagon load of tin for a nickel so as to help put food on the table.  His mom would send him to the deli to where he would buy the end caps or discarded bones for soup.  He spoke of onion sandwiches and even a time to where he came across an apple at the side of the road that someone had gnawed and because he was hungry, ate what was left.  I truly believe that unless a person has lived through such dire circumstances that it is impossible to comprehend what it means to not have enough. 

A year or so back, my daughter worked at a coffee house that was part of a huge grocery  chain.  Technically she was employed by the grocery store, but her position was that of a barista.  During the course of her job she learned the troubling realities of food disposal.  The truth is, usable groceries are thrown away on a day to day basis. 

Cartons of strawberries were sorted through and if one berry seemed a bit sketchy, the entire package was tossed.  One cracked egg and the entire dozen was pitched.  Instead of combining from other packages so as to have an entire carton of perfect, they were all thrown out.  There were many more examples of usable food dumped but keep in mind this was  one store of thousands across the country. 

In the coffee house, the frozen pastries that were thawed to sell each morning were only  kept for that day.  At closing, all were discarded.  Employees were not allowed to salvage those pastries...no.  Hungry college students who work there were required to dump what they could certainly benefit from.  Why? 

I read this morning that France has implemented laws to benefit the local food banks.  The idea is to redirect the grocery food that is suitable for consumption to others.  I feel this is something that we really need to change in the United States.  Apparently, those in power never had a father who lived through the great depression because my dad would have set everyone straight.  We are after all, in this world together. 

I imagine faces, tiny, helpless starving with sunken cheeks, tears falling, stomach growling...feeling great hopelessness and despair.  There is nothing in the refrigerator...emptiness in the pantry...meanwhile the garbage truck is lifting and carrying away hundreds upon thousands of pounds of food each year from the store down the block.  Where is the sense to this? 

Even if the food banks would become flooded with too much food to distribute, even if more people would be required to determine what was usable or not, why are stores and businesses not offering "day old" or produce that is ready to turn to their employees?  Wouldn't such a gesture be a great added benefit for working there?   

Instead we are throwing food away as waste...people are starving, people are struggling as the discarding of obvious resources continues to fill the dumpster. 

It's time we rethink, reuse and redistribute.  France has the right idea and maybe if positive change is nurtured the movement may grow in a way that eliminates hunger completely.  It's time we change our minds towards a better way to live, one meal at a time.