Compassion

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

the big waste

The other night, I was about to go to bed, but flipped to the Food Network and saw a special starting called The Big Waste. Has anyone seen this? I didn't watch the whole thing because it was on so late, but mostly because it made me SO VERY MMMMAAAADDDDD and not at all for the reasons the show wanted me to be.

The premise is Bobby Flay, Michael Symon and a couple of female chefs I don't know the names of - one is a judge on Chopped and the other is the bleach blonde one - compete against each other (boys v. girls, of course) to cook a dish for 100 people completely out of food that is on its way to the dumpster. To prepare, they visit grocery stores, orchards and restaurants to get as much food as they can.

I was absolutely APPALLED at the amount of food grocery stores THROW AWAY because people don't buy it. For some reason, the chefs/grocers kept saying things like, "Americans need to learn a different way to shop. Just because this peach has a little bruise on it, doesn't mean it's unedible. This pea pod [with a white blemish] is perfectly fine!" "Wow, look at all of this [a few garbage BINS full] wasted food. And this is only from a couple of hours!" Okay. If I'm PAYING for food, why would I grab the bruised one when there's a perfectly UNbruised one right next to it??

The much better question is, why are these grocers complaining that they have to pay a disposal company to pick up all of this perfectly good food when they could just as easily contact a food pantry who would, I'm sure, gladly pick it up for free! I am constantly hearing about all of the starving children and/or poor families who can't afford healthy food. Who knew it was because it was all being THROWN AWAY. Something needs to be done about this.

When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 23:22

1 comment:

  1. I completely agree with you. I work by a Food City and see the food they toss. The birds and cats go to town on it. It is very unfortunate. Also, I've had friends who worked for bagel stores like Einstein Bagels, and they would tell me they threw out several bags of bagels everyday. And they were only a day old. I'm sure it happens everywhere. That would be an interesting community service project: to collect unwanted food from stores one night, and deliver them to a homeless shelter the next day. Thanks for the idea!

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