Tackling Food Waste
Written by Ellen Van Velsor
Nearly one-third of the world’s food is never eaten (www.drawdown.org). To grow and transport all of that wasted food takes valuable resources – land, water, human and fossil fuel energy.
When we think about food waste, we might first think of the food we throw away, scraping uneaten food from our plates into the trash, letting leftovers remain uneaten until they are inedible, or buying more than we can eat in a given amount of time. All of those are important for us to address in our individual lives and families. In addition to the climate impact of producing wasted food, we are throwing away our own money, especially today with the rising cost of groceries.
Yet food waste occurs throughout the food supply chain. Farms leave produce in the fields due to the cost of harvesting every last item, damage caused by flooding or droughts, or due to the difficulty of hiring workers in a tight job market. Food gets damaged during transport and supermarkets often reject otherwise good food that is unappealing to the eye because of bumps or bruises that happen during shipping. Also discarded are food products that are at their sell by or use by dates, even though they have remained frozen throughout the transportation process.
When food is wasted, all the energy and resources that were used to produce that food is wasted, as well. This is a shame, certainly, when so many people still lack reliable and consistent access to healthy food. But it is also an environmental issue. Food waste generates unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions and wastes water. According to Project Drawdown, “the global economic, environmental, and social cost of food wastage is estimated at US$2.6 trillion, which is nearly equal to the GDP of France (FAO, 2014).” And they say further, “Reducing food loss and waste can help close the over 60 percent gap between food available today and food needed in 2050, thereby working toward eliminating hunger.”
So what can we do, as a church and as individuals? Fortunately, we have many ways to help here in Greensboro. In addition to paying closer attention to buying only what we will consume while it is fresh and planning to use leftovers in a timely way, we can volunteer to help with local food rescue. RePurpose recovers still edible food from grocery stores, restaurants, and major events and delivers that to nonprofits to help feed their clients. RePurpose (https://asimplegesturegso.org/repurpose-food-recovery/) is always looking for drivers to pick up and deliver usable food.
Whenever we have Sunday school or churchwide events, or even mission trips that feature food, we can be mindful of being good stewards through planning carefully and reusing or donating what we can.
Other churches have organized gleaning projects, where a group from the church seeks permission from a local farm to walk through the fields after a harvest of potatoes, for example, collecting those that did not get picked up by harvesting machines. Those are then donated to local food pantries. This is typically done in the fall and our Care for Creation team is discussing such a project. If you’d like to be involved in any of these projects, want more information, or wish to discuss ideas to reduce food waste at your event, contact Ellen Van Velsor .