Despite surplus tons of food wasted every day, hunger is widespread in America. Now, thanks to a middle-school hero and to the advantages from social media, the capability to feed the hungry here in the Golden State has finally been realized.
In the past, surplus food within San Francisco restaurants, farmlands, hospitals, and other institutions did not go to the needy. Mainly because of cost concerns for collecting and transporting these foods from donor locations to charities, and because of liability fears, potential food distributors claimed they could not get involved in the fight on hunger.
But - where there is a will, there is a way. This is how Kiran Sridhar (Founder, Executive Director, President and Secretary of Waste No Food) believes. Sridhar began a bold initiative to devise a web-based system which connects distributors of food waste to local, legitimate charities; diverting these foods away from the trash dumpster and into the mouths of the hungry.
Kiran is now a 14 year old freshman at Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco, California. Today, he has just about proven naysayers wrong by overcoming Californias obstacles with an efficient go-towebsite for donators, charities, and aid workers to access.
The Waste No Food website gives pertinent details explaining why legitimate concerns food donators have had in the past should not be an issue. Through social media and online connections, it is now much easier to pick up and transport these donations to trusted charities of the donors choosing.
Waste No Food, as relatively new as it is, already has several donors signed up to the website. Dio Deka Restaurant, located in Hotel Los Gatos in Los Gatos, CA, was the first restaurant to contribute food donations. Additionally, other restaurants and farms have signed on to help in the fight against hunger.
The charities signed on to Waste No Food have also gone through rigorous procedures to verify their legitimacy.
More than 11 million Californians today are struggling with hunger, according to a six month investigation by California Watch and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at USC. The presentation, "Hunger in the Golden State" can be viewed on Waste No Foods website: http://hungerincal.uscannenberg.org/
According to the EPA, The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act (Public Law 104-210) protects food donators from legal liability. To read more on this act, visit the U.S. Department of Agricultures website at: www.usda.gov/news/pubs/gleaning/appc.htm
Waste is built into the food chain, at all levels, said Jonathan Bloom, who writes a blog on food waste: http://www.wastedfood.com/. On the whole, the amount of food we waste is ridiculous, especially when you consider the number of Americans who experience hunger every day.
The Negatives
- Enough food is dumped within the state of California annually to fill the Staples Center in Los Angeles 35 times over, equating to more than six million tons of food thrown away.
- Stores like Safeway and Vons make donations to Feeding America, formerly Americas Second Harvest, but these chains often limit donations to bakery items (which hunger organizations need least). Most stores decline to donate perishable items, like produce and meat.
- Thousands of tons of edible food every year is dumped by a majority of the states 90,000 restaurants and eateries.
- A quarter of our food from California households gets thrown away.
- State and federal laws protecting businesses and individuals from criminal or civil liability from food donations have been in place for more than a decade, but donors still worry about liability.
The Positives
California continues to see a growing change in the handling of our food waste and has developed green initiatives in order to cut costs. Some of the larger chains are participating in the cause to donate its surplus food supplies.
- This year, VenturaFoodShare received two million pounds of bananas and cantaloupes from Del Monte Foods Co.
- Its a win-win situation, said Arlene Mercer, founder of Food Finders, in Long Beach. This group collects donations from supermarkets and restaurants for food pantries. They can receive a tax write-off, people will be fed, and it will stop food waste.
- Many of Californias farms, grocery store chains and restaurants donate millions of pounds of food each year to help the needy. They are spurred by good will, green initiatives and relentless demands to cut costs, including food waste disposal.
- The California Association of Food Banks, which represents 45 food banks, has distributed more than 60 million pounds of food through its Farm to Family gleaning program.
- Californias expansive farmland (25 million acres) produces about half of the nations fruits, nuts and vegetables, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which reveals how much potential food there is to salvage for the hungry.
- Millions of pounds of food are rescued each year by gleaning groups all over the state who deliver these second harvest crops to food banks.
- Food recovery groups are well-trained in food handling practices. A fat reducing overview can help you produce a clear outline of what you need to focus on to complete your fat reduction objective if you're a rookie; or serve as a reminder for those who are at an intermediate or more improve step of their weight loss plan. Promptly after are seven steps that can serve as guidelines for your special weight loss system. The first thing that one must understand is that losing weight and losing fat is not exactly the same thing. Many weight loss applications have fooled people into considering that it is the same, but most diets and weight loss programs only work by leading to a person's body to burn more muscle flesh and water than actual body fat, more help please visit The Fat Loss Factor. They hold the same desire to get food safely into the hands of the hungry as much as the donors.
The Benefits
It pays to recover our food resources. Not only do the hungry benefit from this program, but so does Californias economy. Here are a few examples of what can take place within our cities when we exercise food sharing and donating to food banks and kitchens:
- Companies save on disposal fees.
- With composting fees sometimes costing less than landfill/incineration tipping fees, food banks and charity organizations often provide free pick-up for excess food.
- Since food waste is no longer going down the drain, sewer treatment and electricity costs decline.
- Companies gain an increase in tax deductions for their food donations.
- The environment benefits with the reduction in food waste by the elimination of potential dumpster issues such as: odors, pests, and fires.
- Decreased methane and greenhouse gas emissions will arise when we conserve our landfill space.
- With less waste going into incinerators, air emissions and incinerator ash will decrease.
To learn more about the food industry and ways in which you can help in the fight against hunger, also visit the U.S. Department of Agricultures website at:
www.usda.gov/news/pubs/gleaning/appc.htm
To become more involved in the war on hunger with Waste No Food, contact:
Waste No Food
PO Box 887
Los Gatos, CA 95031
wastenofoodorg@gmail.com
Twitter:@wastenofood
Facebook:Waste No Food
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