"There are hungry kids in China," every mother has said when her children won't finish their food. Yes, there are hungry kids in every country but we can't mail them our leftovers. However, the deeper underlying meaning of eat your food, only take what you can eat, be grateful you have something on your plate, and finish your freaking dinner, are all still there. Food waste, convenience packaging, ignorance, and laziness in America have come to an all time high and I am at a complete loss of what to do. Yesterday my inner environmentalist ballooned out with a fury and then deflated and brought me to tears.
Each month I find some sort of local community outreach volunteer project. I rope Abby into coming and it has just become a monthly tradition. This month we picked an organization, which for now, until I do further research on them and give them time to respond to my letters, will remain unnamed. I was super excited about their mission and that we would get some actual deep service helping to feed those in need. Upon arrival we were floored with the fact that 200 other people also showed up at 8:30 on a Saturday to serve. All sorts of groups were there to assist the needy and do what they could. There was a great spirit in the room and a lot of pears. When I mean a lot, I mean about 10,000 pounds. We gathered around the enormous boxes and figured we would be bagging pears into more manageable containers. However, the volunteer coordinator then put us into about 5 groups. Our group was assigned to the giant walk in fridge. Here were pallets upon pallets of food donated by ________, a huge company. This company will also remained unnamed until they have had a chance to respond to my letters and I have had a chance to educate myself more on the laws and hoops they have to jump through.
I was super excited to see that this big company had donated so many pallets of food they weren't going to be able to use. That excitement lasted all of 2 minutes until I started to learn the truth of what happens.
Medicine. Immediately throw it out.
But, but, but.... it's just over the counter- throw it out.
But, it is vitamins- throw it out
Probiotics? Throw it out.
Cough drops? Throw it out. THEY DON'T EXPIRE UNTIL OCTOBER! Throw it out.
There goes about 10 cases of perfectly good items- straight into the trash. We didn't open and dump, sort, recycle, nope- straight into the trash. Hello landfill. Not to mention the time, energy, resources it took to make those in the first place, deliver them twice, and now to be disposed of.
Ok, so there must be some law about medicine, vitamins, anything that says "consult a doctor". But... could the volunteers take them home? Could you partner with another organization that can use them? I am pretty sure there is some way to not throw them all away! Also, why is the big company sending them if you just toss everything? Why not tell them what you can and cannot accept. The big company could donate them to someone who would actually use them. Or they could sell these items at half off when they are 6 months out from sell by date. Why would you want to pay for their trash fees anyway? And if we are going to just "throw it away" can we at least dispose of it responsibly?
Mind blown. Ok. Quell your anger and frustration and keep working. So I kept working until....
Where does baby food go? Throw it away.
WHAT?
This is literally smashed pears in a squeezy tube. Throw it away.
All of it?
Throw it away.
More cases of perfectly good food- trashed. I am sure there are no hungry babies or toddlers anywhere, that must be why we are throwing it away. Insert deep sarcasm. Also, I would totally eat those smooshed pairs in the squeezy tube that is already a huge waste of plastic- don't get me started.
Jessica, just keep working. You are here to volunteer. Change your attitude.
Excuse me where do we put these flowers? Throw them away.
Are you kidding me?
Throw it away. You can remove the boxes and recycle them then compost the flowers.
By the way reader we are talking flowers, in boxes, that you would send to your loved ones for like $50. Oh we had a whole pallet. Throw it away.
Not only that but when I questioned how to open, correctly sort the parts and compost and recycle the girl was like just put it in the recycling. Ok but I can't put the flower food in there, nor the flowers, nor the tape.... put it in the trash.
At this point I am thinking " Put it in the trash" is this non profit's motto.
So.... why not take all of these great boxed flowers and deliver them with food to the families you serve, or put them outside the warehouse and send them home as a thank you with your 200 volunteers. Or give all the packets of flower food to a florist to use. I know my wildlife center uses flowers in the bird's cages. What about homes for the elderly, can't we go deliver them?
Throw them away.
Animal food?
Throw it away.
Are you kidding?! Local shelters, including the one I volunteer at, spend $$$$$$$$$ to feed their animal. I am pretty sure the families you serve also probably have pets. The lady right across your street who is homeless has a hungry dog.
Organic, free range, no hormones, yada chicken breasts. Oh the sell by date was yesterday.... Throw it away.
High quality cuts of steak- throw it away.
Dude the sell by date is NOT the expiration date.
Ice Cream- throw it away.
Ok once again if you can't take ice cream why not tell the company and stop accepting it.
At this point I had literally teared up. I was throwing away so SO much meat you cannot even fathom. I was mad at the big box company for having this much excess, I was mad at the non profit for tossing everything, I was mad at society for making a 'I will sue you' everyone is afraid of being sued so we have stupid laws, I was mad at everyone in the room for not caring, I was hurting for all the hunger, all the skin and bone children, and people I have seen begging, and literally starving to death, as I stood here surrounded by food that I was told' throw that away'. I was thinking of the lady and the dog literally across the street in a makeshift house of boxes and tarps who we had given granola bars to earlier and how I could feed her and all of Skid Row for a year on what we threw away in one hour. My mind couldn't get over all the pain and hunger I have seen in my travels as I stood here surrounded by so much excess.
At this point I was so emotional and teary eyed that I told Abby we had to move to a different group. She knew how hard it was for me.
The pears! Let's go back to the pears. We walked out and... the pears were done. We started to help build boxes for the next load: carrots. That is when I saw the dumpster.
Imagine a dumpster- one the size you would find at an apartment complex.... completely full of pears. What the heck? There's got to be hundreds and hundreds of pounds of pears in here....
Some, very few, had mushy spots or broken skin but the majority just had sun spots, lines, or cuts on the skin. Throw it away.
At this point I could not control it. I stepped outside and through held back tears texted my mom a stream of thoughts, angers, frustrations, and feeling completely helpless just stood there. Build the boxes I told myself. Think of all the people they are feeding, think of all that food from the big box company that would have just gone in the trash, think of the millions of meals they give people each year, think of the laws and binds they have to be under. So, I build boxes. I folded and built lots of boxes and thought about this society we created where we can't give food away because someone might get sick and sue us, I thought about the society we created where we won't eat a banana if it is too long or short, where if an apple is misshapen it is thrown away, where appearance of food matters more than the food. I thought about a society where we turned farming into factory farming which is ruining our environment and has turned animals into a money symbol. I thought about all of my humanitarian trips and the need around the world and also the lack of waste in other countries and how everything is used because it is precious.
So how do we change an entire nation? How do we get people to know that a sell by date is not an expiration date and that the expiration date is still early to keep the company from getting sued? How do we educate people on food waste? How do we stop a consumer society from consuming unnecessary plastic, paper, and resources in the name of convenience? How do we solve the problem of the waste in just this one facility?
I can't even fathom the grander scale because this is just one shop in one town.
Guys, I know there are laws, I know they are trying, I know they are an organization that is doing so much good, but I also know they can do better.
What about a network of nonprofits? An app that connects them? People could post what came in, what they can't use, how much of it they have and when they need to pick it up? What about partnering with local farmers and animal organizations that need to feed animals that would gladly eat the carrot that was imperfect or didn't snap right? What about not accepting items you can't use from big box companies? What if that company didn't only care about overall profits and sold the items at a discount before they "expired"? What if that company donated to an organization that could take it? Hire some volunteers and work just a little harder to save millions of pounds of food a year. I am going to personally volunteer to help them with it and I know there are more people like me. Together we can change.
You can only buy what you need at the grocery store, meal plan, don't throw away your leftovers just because you don't like leftovers. Don't over buy. If food is about to go bad package it up and take it to your local homeless man on the corner. Don't have one? I will tell you where to find them. I take them all the leftovers and food that I know I won't be able to eat and when we ask: Are you hungry? We have never, ever, had someone refuse the food we bring them. Stop "throwing it away" and make a difference in your own household and I will try to make a difference on the grander scale.
My heart broke yesterday but I am determined to do something about it. Now I just need to find the higher ups who will listen.
