In America, we throw away tons and tons of edible food each night into the trash. Why?

Question

As a cook and paramedic, I know what hunger does to people. If all the fast food joints, delis, grocery stores, restaurants, etc. could develop a collect and delivery system no one would go hungry, especially in the big population centers. I have tried contacting everyone, but no answer. Help me with some new ideas. Thanks!

Answer 1

a few years I though the same thing. I too made phone calls and wrote letters, and it turns out no one wants to touch that subject (mostly because if fears for being sued)

What did I do?
I gathered a group of friends and people that felt like I did, we talked to the local shops and picked up the food ourselves and took it to the shelters and to the bridges and to all other places where we knew lots of hungry-homeless people "hung-out"

We did our part and though no BIG wigs were involved, it was all worth it to know that these people, even if just for that night, were not going hungry.

Good luck!

Answer 2

I have seen some @ Christmas that say they have post consumer waste content. But, you can also reuse them before adding them to the recycle bin. I cut the designs off the front to use as gift tags and recycle the rest, then recycle the tags after Christmas or whatever holiday. My mom found directions on an origami site where you fold them to make really cute gift boxes that can be recycled after the fact. I have also framed the fronts of some that are just so beautiful, I couldn't toss them, which has made for great artwork in my home. When I get tired of it, it goes into the recycle bin and another gets popped in! It's a great way to create fun art groupings that are 'green', too. Okay, I didn't even think about store gift cards - the ones that are not reloadable, I toss in w/ my plastics. Never had a problem w/ it. When my daughter was younger, she would play w/ them for a while when playing 'store' before they went in the bin. We have also used them in art projects as mosaic tiles, too.

Answer 3

Americans throw away food for various reasons. Most people don't know what it's like to go hungry. Most people ignore the fact that they are aware of all the hunger in the world, and throwing the food away is a subconscious shout that they are rich enough to do that.

I don't know your location, but there is one nationwide network to address hunger by collecting wasted restaurant food. It's called America's Second Harvest.

http://www.secondharvest.org/

Good luck!

Answer 4

The reason all the fast food places and restaurants throw all that away is because it's gone "bad" or could soon go bad. It would be great to give all that food to hungry people, but all it takes is one of those hungry people to sue you because their leftover Big Mac had stale lettuce, and you're out of business. The legal liabilities are just too great.

Answer 5

It is a great idea but wouldn't work. Prepared food would have to be kept safely until it was picked up so the storeage would be costly for the restaurant. If someone got sick from the food if it wasn't stored or transorted properly the producer would likely be sued. Life is to complicated for us to be able to help anyone these days.

Answer 6

Here, we have a program where grocery stores donate day old bread, cake, pies, etc. to a food bank. The food bank has people who make the rounds of grocery stores and restaurants every day.

Answer 7

Unfortunately, the lawyers and insurance agencies have convinced us that if one person gets sick from donated food, it will cost too much money. This means that it is better to throw away good food that happens to be out of date than to feed hungry people and risk someone getting sick.

Answer 8

i totally agree. i have begun freezing un ate portions.
cereal,bread,chips at the end of the bag i feed to the birds.
i think the reason you are not getting a response is because they have certain guidelines on what they will feed the homeless. pretty f'd up-huh? we found this out after a party at work and no shelters would take the left-overs even though it was catered.
my advice to you is to start at home.

Answer 9

Not here we have left overs and love them too. Less cooking for me. Try cooking less so that you don't have to throw the food away.

Answer 10

sorry, but liability insurance prohibits most companies from doing anything except putting the food in the garbage! Stop people suing them and they will in most cases be glad to help!