Food Going to Waste

Not Enough to Eat

People are going hungry everyday. According to Poverty.com 

About 21,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. This is one person every four seconds, as you can see on this display. Sadly, it is children who die most often. Yet there is plenty of food in the world for everyone.

So Much is Wasted

Remember when mom would try to coax us to eat our vegetables or chipped beef with, "Don't waste your food! Think of all the starving people in China." A friend of mine had a snarky answer, "Name four!" I never would have gotten away with that one.

Apparently the food waste problem is much larger than we thought. According to an article in the Salt Blog by NPR's Alison Aubrey, nearly half of the food produced in America goes to waste.

The UN estimates it is a $2.6 trillion issue. 

Some are Willing To Help

A huge portion of the produce grown in the US is thrown out because it is imperfect. The produce could be donated, but it is cheaper for the farmer to simply throw it out, According to Aubrey's report seven states offer incentives for farmers to donate the food. The hope is that there will be more.

You can find out more by going to Aubrey's blog, including information about the grocery chain that will feature less than perfect produce in its stores.

To Tackle Food Waste, Big Grocery Chain Will Sell Produce Rejects

Why should we care?

The bottom line is that it costs our country more to ignore hunger than it does to do something about it. Check out this video from No Kid Hungry. 

Here's how No Kid Hungry breaks down the costs of hunger.

According to the Center for American Progress, the annual cost of hunger or its threat (i.e. “food insecurity) includes:

• $130.5 billion: Illness costs linked to hunger and food insecurity in America.
• $19.2 billion: Value of poor educational outcomes and lower lifetime earnings linked to hunger and food insecurity in America.
• $17.8 billion: Value of charitable contributions to address hunger and food insecurity in America.

Nobody should be going hungry. As individuals we can only do a little. As a community we can do a lot.