Concerns on Wasted Food: What Can You Do?

by Andre

In recent years, a local Starbucks has become my coffee shop of choice. Regardless of its many flaws, I enjoy their coffee and…  aw who am I kidding, I know some Barista’s and rarely have to pay for my drinks becuse of it. Anyway, something that has recently bothered me about the way they operate deals with the ridiculous amount of food that is wasted there. For quality assurance purposes, every food item has a throw away date. This date, similar to an expiry date on all your groceries, has more to do with sustaining a high quality product more so than any health risks associated with aging food.

This sort of thing happens at nearly every establishment that deals in food. I am aware that some doughnut shops give away their day olds before closing. I know that arrangements are sometimes made with Churches or shelters so that the food that would otherwise go to waste, is claimed and redistributed. My concern is that this sort of thing should be happening all over, always.

Reading up on the topic (something I will follow-up on in the coming weeks), it is astounding to find out how much food and water is wasted during the production/distribution cycle. We live in a society where it is deemed more important to keep grocery shelves and display windows packed beyond what the demand dictates. This ongoing overstock cycle produces unnecessary waste based entirely on cosmetic reasons. Below is a list of links I found which dives deeper into the issue:

• Food Waste on ‘Staggering’ Scale
• Cost of Food Waste Pile Up
• Half of All Food and Water Produced Worldwide Goes to Waste
• The Big Business of Compost
• Why Do We Waste So Much Food?
• Wasted Food (blog)

The main reason for this post relates back to the wasted food at my local Starbucks.

Really all it would take is a few people within any urban retail district willing to save food from going to waste.”

Volunteer Network?

I am wondering if there is a network of volunteers out there that is able to coordinate a daily pick-up and delivery service for food that would otherwise go to waste. Really all it would take is a few people within any urban retail district willing to save food from going to waste. I for one am certain a half an hour a night is all it would take to save the food and redistribute it locally to churches or shelters or anyone in need.

There is the argument that it is silly or cold-hearted to give away old food to people in need. It’s the, “I would never eat this, but they can because they’re homeless” argument I suppose. But really, the food in question isn’t unhealthy, but merely not up to corporate/customer standards of the day.

I’ve looked around but haven’t been able to find any real networks around that would be able to coordinate this sort of thing on a larger/city-wide scale. Does anyone out there know of anything in their area that is currently underway that relates to my concern? I am definitely going to talk to several local store managers/owners to ask them about their willingness to take part in a food redistribution program if one existed.

To me, it seems this should really be incorporated in part of the production/distribution cycle to begin with. The amount of food that we in the first world waste without thinking while people go hungry everywhere needs to end. I am certainly going to follow through with this topic in another post.

In the mean time, if anyone has any suggestions or would be willing to help establish a network of food rescue volunteers with me, please let me know in the comments below.