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Don't let your food get trashed

Posted on Jan 26th 2008 3:09PM by Chris Sparling

Filed Under: Alternative & Green Health, Nutrition & Supplements

Did you know that Americans send about 96 billion pounds worth of food to landfills every year? We produce an enormous amount of food per year, yet we still manage to waste about one quarter of it. Not only is this a blatant slap in the face to the thousands of people who go hungry every night, but it is also an economic burden to society on the whole, for we spend close to $1 billion a year to dispose of this food.

How can we do our part in helping to fix this problem? Here are a few good ideas:

Donate leftover food to local food banks, shelters, and community service organizations
Participate in a co-op buying program to support local farmers
Refrigerate or freeze foods that can safely be stored until a later date
Compost food waste
Make sure that your refrigerator temperature setting is not too high, which can cause early decomposition
Plan meals by food's 'use by' date to reduce waste
Only purchase perishable foods that you are certain you will soon consume

3 Comment

Tags: Chris Sparling, ChrisSparling, food, trash, waste

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

bob sakamano 1-26-2008 @ 3:26PM

these are all ideal (and some obvious) but you are asking a lot

1. donating left over food to food banks/etc = wont we have to drive to these places/waste gas just to deliver half sandwiches?

2. co-op... ok doable, but not easily accessible to all, like above. how does this even help waste? it's just supporting the local economy.

3. refrigerate -obviously

4. compost - i guess we can try this? what about the millions of people who live in apartments who dont have any dirt use to compost... our potted plants can only take so many leftovers.

5. good advice

6. i assume people make sure to eat the food in our refrigerators before they expire

7. i assume people only purchase food we plan on eating?!?!?

Brian 1-26-2008 @ 10:11PM

1. Donate leftover food to local food banks, shelters, and community service organizations.... Most states regulate that food banks can not take and serve left over, or premade, foods due to the threat of food poisoning. A food bank regulated with such laws and regulations of the food service industry they will just trash the food.... best bet is to take the food home and give it to you friendly pet...

marcie0305 1-27-2008 @ 9:34PM

^^I've heard this too, but the company I work for is the major donor to the soup kitchen downtown, they send the uneaten menu items over there every day. I don't think it's safe for regular people to drop off food, but we could all encourage our places of work and other places like restaurants to look into donating unused food.

And speaking of restaurants, how about those gigantic portion sizes? I've been trying to order things I can share with my 2-year old son instead of ordering him a separate kid's meal, for example. And surely this is more healthy for him, because it seems that 99.9% of kid's meals consist of a core menu of fries, fried nuggets, pizza, and burgers.

And ask for a doggie bag! Leftovers often taste better than the 1st time, anyway :)

~Marcie
http://feedingblackmail.blogspot.com