Years ago, I attended summer camp in the Hudson River Valley. I remember one meal in particular. We had enjoyed all the trappings of a beautiful picnic in the summer sun. When we finished eating, two camp counselors picked up the edges of the white plastic table cloth. They created a kind of funnel that sent the leftovers hurling straight into a trash barrel. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
That was a long time ago, but unfortunately the problem of food waste is still with us today. In fact, up to 40 percent of all US food grown, processed, and transported ends up in a landfill. The environmental consequences alone are profound. For example, food waste makes up the single largest component of landfills. Making matters worse, the Environmental Protection Agency rated landfills the third largest source of methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. The environmental impact of wasting food is upsetting. But it’s unconscionable when some 42 million people are food insecure in America.
We can do better. On a positive note, we’re slowly moving in that direction.
Two years ago, the US Department of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency, and the White House set a goal to reduce food waste by 50 percent by 2030. A number of socially-responsible businesses and organizations in the social sector are leaning in. So too is my organization, Feeding America. You can click here to see the various ways that we’re aggressively tackling the problem. For us, wasting safe, decent food makes no sense when 1 in 8 people in this nation are hungry.
You can help rescue good food and ameliorate hunger by taking any number of steps. Why not tweet about the fact that we’re wasting food at a time when millions of Americans are facing hunger? Or sign our online petition that tells Congress to make ending food waste a priority? You can get involved in other ways by clicking here. Sending 72B lbs of perfectly edible food to landfills is an outrage, especially when so many people are in need. Join us to put an end to food waste in America today.
Follow me on Twitter at @diaviv.