Talk With Your Mouth Full!!

   2/28/11

It is easy to forget about the millions of starving people in the world when one has a full belly and doesn't have to wonder where his or her next meal will come from, but perhaps the dinner table is the ideal place to think about world hunger and what might be done to address the problem.  The evening meal is often the only time that families have to communicate and exchange ideas. In some homes it is a tradition. Free the Food's aim is to educate by presenting facts and statistics along with direct links to their sources. The information provided would surely make for lively and meaningful discussion. Instead of, ''How was your day?," try  "Who knows where the local food bank is?" Or, "Do you know of anybody in our community who needs some help feeding their family?" Or, "Did you know that 40 to 50% of all food ready for harvest in the US is never eaten?" Hopefully, the conversation would lead to action. Volunteer opportunities abound. One only has to look.  Many churches regularly serve meals to those in need.  The
local "Meals on Wheels" might need a driver.  Find out if your favorite supermarket donates food to be distributed to the hungry, and if they do not, encourage them to do so. Ask at the bakery, the coffee shop or the bagelry.  Quite a lot of "day-old"baked goods get thrown out daily.

                                   Educate! Advocate!

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"There are nearly one billion malnourished people in the world, but the approximately 40 million tons of food wasted by US households, retailers and food services each year would be enough to satisfy the hunger of every one of them.

• If we planted trees on land currently used to grow unnecessary surplus and wasted food, this would offset a theoretical maximum of 100% of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

• 2.3 million tonnes of fish discarded in the North Atlantic and the North Sea each year; 40 to 60% of all fish caught in Europe are discarded either because they are the wrong size, species, or because of the ill-governed European quota system.  

• The bread and other cereal products thrown away in UK households alone would have been enough to lift 30 million of the worlds hungry people out of malnourishment

                                  24 to 35% of school lunches end up in the bin."

Source: http://www.feeding5k.org/food-waste-facts.php

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Follow this link...  http://www.fareshare.org.uk/

It will conduct you to the home page of Fare Share Community Food Network. You will find a short video of an organization that is taking ACTION in Great Britain.

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Think about the situation..... the possible solutions..... discuss them with your family and friends........ The struggle to end world hunger begins  right here at home! 

                                THINK LOCALLY........... IMAGINE GLOBALLY

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Thanks again for reading!

Would you please pass me the jellly?

Athur

Lost In The Shovel

2/27/11

Supermarkets worldwide proudly display their offerings of "fresh" fruits and vegetables.... carefully chosen for 'flawlessness" and often arranged in decorative arrays sorted by color. Before these items have reached the aisle, they were also chosen for their flawlessness first by the growers and again by the distributers. The "flaws" that result in rejection, as defined by minimum quality standards, some set by the retailers and often by both state and federal regulations, may be as minor as the size, shape or color of the piece of produce in question. The demand by the consumer for blemish-free food is one of the primary causes of food loss. It is the same with even non-perishable items. Whether swept from the floor of the factory or discovered by the retailer, tons of broken pieces of perfectly edible pasta find their way to the dumpster.

"A 2004 study showed that forty to fifty percent cent of all food ready for harvest in the United States never gets eaten."

Source: http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Supply-Chain/Half-of-US-food-goes-to-waste
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Below are some quotes form a study conducted by the US Department of Agriculture. The link below will conduct you to the full report. This should be required reading in our schools. Read it. Pass it on!

"Americans spend a smaller share of their disposable income on food than citizens of any other country and choose from an average of 50,000 different food products on a typical outing to the supermarket. In 1994, the food supply provided an estimated 3,800 calories per person per day, enough to supply every American with more than one and a half times their average daily energy needs."

"91 billion pounds of food were lost by consumers and foodservice in 1995"

"Foodservice and consumer losses accounted for 26% of edible food supplies."

"Fresh fruits and vegetables accounted for nearly 20% of consumer and foodservice losses."

Source http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/FoodReview/Jan1997/Jan97a.pdf

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I have heard of a very simple and logical approach to weight loss. This diet suggests that one eat only two thirds of what is on one's plate.....  I like it. I know that it works for some.

However..... Give serious thought to the fate of the remaining third! 

Eat your greens!

Thanks again for reading feedbags.blogspot.com ...... pass it on!

Arthur

More Thought for Food

"Finish what's on your plate! Don't you know there are kids starving in Asia?"


How many children have heard this admonition at the dinner table? Basically it's sound advice. Kids should be taught early on to be members of "the clean plate club," but at the same time, made aware of the reality  that there are people starving all around the world. What gets scraped from a plate after a meal more often than not goes directly into a plastic trash bag and ultimately winds up in the local land fill.

"Some 13 percent of all municipal solid waste consists of food scraps and edible cast-offs from residences and food-service establishments -- restaurants, cafeterias, and the like. That's about 30 million tons a year, or enough food to feed all of Canada during that same period. When all that food decomposes in landfills, one by-product is methane, which has 20 times the global-warming potency of carbon dioxide. Based on Environmental Protection Agency data, rotting food may be responsible for about one-tenth of all anthropogenic methane emissions......According to USDA statistics, in 1995, some 5.4 billion pounds of food were lost at the retail level, while 91 billion pounds were lost in America's kitchens, restaurants, and institutional cafeterias. In other words, food-service and consumer loss make up 95 percent of all food waste, which means most of the responsibility falls on those who prepare the food we eat, whether it's a homemade meal, a dinner at a sit-down restaurant"
'

Source: http://www.onearth.org/article/how-to-wage-war-on-food-waste

February 28, 2010 by Laura Wright

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From a 2007 CNN report (Oliver 07):

"If 5% of America's food scraps were recovered, this would represent one day of food for four million people"

Source: http://www.eateco.org/Waste.htm

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In many communities recycling is encouraged, In some it is mandatory. Uneaten food that cannot be recovered for human consumption should be composted. 

        

If your eyes are bigger than your belly and you can't finish what's on your plate, give the scraps back to the earth! Compost whenever possible.  

Let's all say grace now.

Thanks for reading

Arthur

Welcome!

2//25/11

Welccome to Free the Food......  Our mission: To increase the public's awareness of the shocking amounts of food and water that is wasted each day not only in America, but around world.
All future posts will contain statistics (along with links to their source), related news articles, suggestions about volunteering with organizations dedicated to the equitable distribution of food in your community, and images that are worth thousands of words.

Here we go.......

To refer to any establishment or that feeds the hungry as a "soup kitchen" is to denigrate its patrons.

"63 of emergency food program clients have a high school or college education" 
"23 million Americans rely on emergency food assistance"
 Source: http://www.foodbankcny.


I am one of many volunteers at Loaves and Fishes, a community kitchen in Ithaca, NY that serves nutritious meals to hundreds of people from all walks of life. At Loaves, there is no criteria for admission. ALL are welcome.  Lunch is served monday, wednesday and friday; dinner tuesday and thursday. Learn more about this exemplary organization at:  loaves.org

Waste not......


"40% of all the food produced in the US is thrown out."  "Food is the third largest waste stream after paper and yard waste."   "Food waste accounts for more than a quarter of freshwater consumption....... 300 million barrels annually."  
Source: http://www.greenlivingtips.com/blogs/491/Food-waste-statistics.html


Want not.....

Do you know of any individual or family who is in need of food?  Programs abound......  Get involved.... discuss this issue with your neighbors..... your children.... their children.  There is no need for anyone to go hungry.  EVER. The solution to world hunger is only a matter of distribution.

Why not?......

Start locally. Imagine globally.

Your comments invited.
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Thanks for reading........ Tell a friend

Arthur Dubrul Daniels