How Much Food Do We Waste?

It is my incredible pleasure to share a guest post by Randy Clark. Randy is a top-notch marketer (his bio follows his post) who also has a great sense of humor and an interest in natural foods and community action. I highly recommend following him on Twitter and Facebook. It is an extreme honor to share his post.

How Much Food Do We Waste?

Last Friday evening, my wife and I attended a reception for the Hoosier Auto Show sponsored by the Circle City Corvair Club. Corvair owners, (It’s a car from the sixties) had driven from Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio to show their cars. The event was catered. I understand last year they ran out of food. This year, there was plenty of food. As a matter of fact - there was too much food. There were four unopened containers of pasta, and bread. I sent a tweet asking who could use the food and Pamela suggested the Wheeler Mission. My wife and I left the reception to deliver the food. It was needed. It would have been thrown away. It would have been wasted.

The awards banquet was the following night. Jonathan Byrds  had been hired to cater the banquet. The food was excellent and the employee setting up the service was great. But, there was a lot of food left over, unopened containers of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and vegetables. I asked the service person what happened to the food and he told me it was all carefully packed, put in a cooler at Jonathan Byrd’s, and donated to Second Helpings. This is as good of an example of corporate responsibility, community involvement, and caring from a business - as you will find. It made my night.  

Americans waste about one pound of food everyday for every American

According to an article published in the New York Times:  “Americans waste an astounding amount of food — an estimated 27 percent of the food available for consumption, according to a government study — and it happens at the supermarket, in restaurants and cafeterias and in your very own kitchen. It works out to about a pound of food every day for every American.”

Waste not, want not

The Jonathan Byrd service person shared a story with me. His Grandmother had lived in Europe before World War One when much of Europe was in a depression. After World War One she waited in breadlines with her family. As an adult she moved to America and experienced the great Depression. She had learned the hard way. She didn’t let much go to waste. They had some land on Long Island where they planted a large garden, raised livestock, and dogs. What the family didn’t consume was feed to the hogs, the dogs, or both. Like he said - not much was wasted, and the conservation lessons were not wasted on him. My new friend wondered aloud how much we could all learn from his grandmother today. I don’t have to wonder.

Every night 190,000 children go to bed hungry - in Indiana

Green Answers answered the question, “How many people go hungry everyday in America?” “According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about 500,000 households suffer from hunger each day.  They are classified as 'food insecure.' “  According to The Guardian over a million American children go hungry every day.”  Feeding Indiana’s Hungry (FIsH) brings it home with this statement, “Every night 190,000 children in Indiana go to bed - hungry.”

Stop Wasting - Start Helping

Second Helpings - Take Action

Wheeler Mission Help

Food bank Locator

What else do we waste?

Here's a few more thoughts on waste.

Randy Clark

Randy Clark is the Director of Communications at TKO Graphix, where he blogs for TKO Graphix Brandwire  Randy is passionate about social media, leadership development, and flower gardening. He is a beer geek and on weekends he can be found fronting the Rock & Roll band Under The Radar. He is the proud father of one educator, one Principal, has four amazing grand children, and a public speaking wife who puts up with him. His twitter handle is @randyclarktko, Face book: Randy Clarktko.