I spent Sunday in downtown DC with the homeless people I've gotten to know, bringing them food, clothing and toiletries. (I've been going about once a month.) Where I go is within sight of the White House. I gave away 90 burritos, ice cream and ice water, and it took me less than an hour. I had to turn hungry people away when I ran out.
The US throws away 96 BILLION pounds of food each year. Food, by weight, is the single largest waste produce in the US. 50% of the food we harvest in this country never gets eaten. That's what we HARVEST - much of it never gets out of the fields. And we've got hunger in this country.
It wouldn't be hard to get rid of hunger in our country, but we would have to reexamine some ways of doing things. Supermarkets and restaurants would have to be allowed to donate or re-serve day old or close to expired goods. We would have to accept produce that isn't exactly perfect. And we'd have to decide that the waste involved in having 15 flavors of bagels ready to purchase isn't worth it. For a while, there was a Trader Joe's near me that would tell me when they were going to put food out in the dumpster so that I could bring it downtown to the homeless. They weren't allowed to give it to me by law, but they didn't bother me taking a box of food that was sitting next to the dumpster. Much of it wasn't even expired - they had just gotten in a fresher shipment, and it all didn't fit on the shelves. (But they got a new manager, and that was that...) If laws were changed, every grocery store could give away that food instead of throwing it away, and it would make a huge difference.
This world was made with more than enough resources to care for everyone in it. It's time we re-adjusted to make that happen.
I spent Sunday in downtown DC with the homeless people I've gotten to know, bringing them food, clothing and toiletries. (I've been going about once a month.) Where I go is within sight of the White House. I gave away 90 burritos, ice cream and ice water, and it took me less than an hour. I had to turn hungry people away when I ran out.
The US throws away 96 BILLION pounds of food each year. Food, by weight, is the single largest waste produce in the US. 50% of the food we harvest in this country never gets eaten. That's what we HARVEST - much of it never gets out of the fields. And we've got hunger in this country.
It wouldn't be hard to get rid of hunger in our country, but we would have to reexamine some ways of doing things. Supermarkets and restaurants would have to be allowed to donate or re-serve day old or close to expired goods. We would have to accept produce that isn't exactly perfect. And we'd have to decide that the waste involved in having 15 flavors of bagels ready to purchase isn't worth it. For a while, there was a Trader Joe's near me that would tell me when they were going to put food out in the dumpster so that I could bring it downtown to the homeless. They weren't allowed to give it to me by law, but they didn't bother me taking a box of food that was sitting next to the dumpster. Much of it wasn't even expired - they had just gotten in a fresher shipment, and it all didn't fit on the shelves. (But they got a new manager, and that was that...) If laws were changed, every grocery store could give away that food instead of throwing it away, and it would make a huge difference.
This world was made with more than enough resources to care for everyone in it. It's time we re-adjusted to make that happen.
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