Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
At a local shelter here in town that I volunteer at we try to get as many left over and out of date food as possible that the health department will let businesses donate.
Getting businesses to get over the fear of litigation by donating out of code food is REALLY hard.
The Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act protects individuals and businesses that donate food.
But shelters, food pantries, and food banks don't always have the labor to collect the food from the restaurant or business, nor might they have adequate storage. Prepared food, especially, is difficult to harvest because it's not shelf stable and must be refrigerated or served immediately.
Please stop the moralistic hand-wringing; I personally have encountered very little evidence that anyone who makes any attempt to play by the rules is going hungry in America. The cases which do come to light usually involve malnutrition rather than hunger -- and the cause is usually neglect by irresponsible parents or, in the case of the elderly, mental illness and alienated children or other relatives.
I had a relative, a career-educator bachelor uncle, who lived to just short of the age of 92. He was a strict vegetarian whose diet was further limited by ulcers and diverticulitis, and he insisted upon staying alone in his own home. He easily qualified for a "meals on wheels" program, but more than half of the food had to be given away or thrown out because one or more of his restrictions got in the way -- and the agency made it quite clear that they did not have the facilities or staff to address special needs.
What's more, the supposed "waste" generally originates because the material -- raw unprocessed agricultural commodities -- is dirt cheap. It's the labor involved in processing convenience-oriented foodstocks that drives up the price. Not to mention all the foibles built into our production and distribution networks by "nutritional gurus" of every strain, and which seem to change on a regular basis.
This just makes me sick. I've seen children hunting for food in garbage in 3rd world countries. I know our own children in this country go hungry during the summer when they can't get school meals. There is no excuse for this.
Yeah, we waste time and money too. If it comes too easy, it gets wasted.
First, let me point out again that no one should go hungry if "the system" is properly policed to do what it is intended to do. If there is a failure here, it is among those charged with running the bureaucracy. (And remember, a bureaucrat who "solves" a "problem" puts him/herself out of a job).
And if the food distribution network is inefficient, much of the fault lies with Madison Avenue, which is always eager to cater to the latest "nutritional whim" as plugged by a "diet industry" which, in turn, is fueled by both limited scientific understanding and unrealistic expectations sold to an impressionable public; Atkins, Veganism, gluten-phobia -- one fad follows another, and the perceived need to carry a wider line of products increases the "shrinkage" in the process of physical distribution.
And I have to point out that many attempts to enforce policies of "healthier eating" in schools have backfired, with the taxpayers left to pick up the tab. Prohibition failed, and the "war on drugs", while obviously waged for higher stakes, has been both expensive and isn't generally viewed as successful. Why would anyone think it would be any different with an issue as basic and far-reaching as diet and nutrition?
Author Robert Heinlein said it best many years ago: "There is no greater tyranny than forcing someone to pay for (or participate in) something they don't want, just because you think it would be good for them."
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 09-25-2014 at 04:06 AM..
Reminds me,its corn on the cob season and some people wont just pick up a dozen corn and go they have to meticulously husk every corn in the bin to make sure they get 12 absolutely perfect corn ears , then the rest of the shoppers wont touch the corn feeling its been tampered with, manager usually ends up throwing a lot of corn in the dumpster.
I've also seen these same type of people going through the baskets of peaches,picking out each one to make sure their basket of peaches is perfect, what results is baskets of peaches that are ok but just not perfect, they usually get tossed.
I actually watched one of the corn chuckers last week. Gross!
I think, no kudzu, that I recall you posting a YouTube series on reducing food waste in the home kitchen some time ago, and it had a lot of helpful hints, not least of which was a tip about how to arrange a refrigerator to minimize food spoilage. I've integrated that method into our household food management system, and it has been very successful.
I have no suggestions for the school lunch program, a subject that has already been beaten to death all over the forums, but using a bento box helped reduce food waste for packed lunches when our children were younger. Because nothing was disposable, any uneaten food came home each afternoon. Sometimes, the kids ate the leftovers as an after school snack, but more frequently, it just helped us adjust portion sizes for future lunches.
As for food waste at the commercial level, that's simply above my pay grade.
Last edited by randomparent; 09-25-2014 at 09:56 AM..
This just makes me sick. I've seen children hunting for food in garbage in 3rd world countries. I know our own children in this country go hungry during the summer when they can't get school meals. There is no excuse for this.
Most school districts I have been involved with do have lunch programs during the summer and back pack programs for kids over the weekend.
as for wasting or throwing away food, there are government regulations that often make it impossible to use some foods that you and I might not totally understand. When I watch the kids at our nearby elementary school throw so much good food like oranges and uneaten apples in the trash I shutter, but the law says they can not be used.
Kids do go hungry in many cases, there are ways for them to get something, even in the summer. Even our church food pantry allows families to visit more often in the summer because the kids are out of school. We offer bags of groceries, bread (sometimes 2 or 3 loaves a week) meat and during the summer growing season fresh produce. I might add, we are not a large mega church. We do have the support of the community thank goodness and a lot of dedicated workers within the church.
Reminds me,its corn on the cob season and some people wont just pick up a dozen corn and go they have to meticulously husk every corn in the bin to make sure they get 12 absolutely perfect corn ears , then the rest of the shoppers wont touch the corn feeling its been tampered with, manager usually ends up throwing a lot of corn in the dumpster.
I've also seen these same type of people going through the baskets of peaches,picking out each one to make sure their basket of peaches is perfect, what results is baskets of peaches that are ok but just not perfect, they usually get tossed.
I have watched the store produce workers go through the produce dept and toss fruits and veggies that are not up to their standards. I wish they would just keep them separate and volunteer to give them to the food pantries.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
