By law, certain foods must be disposed of after a certain amount of time, even if there's nothing wrong with it. For example, if you ever go to a Dunkin' Donuts just before closing, you'll notice that they throw away everything that wasn't sold that day (at least they used to). I'm not sure if that's by law or company policy, but it's a good way to score free donuts. Not that anyone needs to be eating a whole shitload of donuts . . . Some companies that get rid of their stock at the end of each day, for example, some bakeries, will donate the food to local homeless shelters or churches. It really is crazy how much food is wasted in the U.S. and how it permeates the culture. When towns and cities are organized around roads intended for cars, it seems like food moves farther away from people. When people are less familiar with what fresh foods look like, it seems like the trend is to trust in a governing body to issue standards for what constitutes food as being "fresh" or at least safe for consumption. I really, really don't like it, but most people in America aren't able to go to the market each day to get fresh food, or even have the time built in to their schedules to take the time to prepare food. In my mind, it's a huge contributor to the general fatness of the population.
When I worked birthday parties we served pizza and sometimes, if the parents didn't take it home with them, we would have 10-20 half eaten pizzas at the end of the day. In Culver City, the three of us would go drop it off to homeless. But in the other location - Manhattan Beach - there aren't really any homeless. I would text my friends and the hungry growing high school boys would drive up at the speed of light to grab it. But usually that only got rid of 3-6 pizzas and we would have to dump the rest. It made me so frustrated. I know pizza isn't the healthiest option but it's pretty damn filling and could have made at least 10 people pretty happy for a night. And this was every Saturday and every Sunday for 3 years. If you think of these two little locations and then multiply it by about 10 million to apply to every kids birthday place, every corner deli, every bakery, every grocery store, every catered event, every restaurant, it's really quite despicable.
Yeah definitely. I've heard of some places starting composting sites at dumps and landfills and while that's great and all, there are still people who can't eat healthfully, or even at all. If the U.S. can provide aid to people in other countries in the form of food, I'd think that more attention would be paid to making sure that at least kids get proper nutrition.
I used to do some volunteer work with the Red Cross here on their 'soup patrol' vans every week or so in high school. We'd basically head down to our local Croissant Express and they'd give us a ton of sandwiches, rolls and baguettes full of meat and such that they didn't sell that day. There was honestly nothing wrong with any of it, but they can't exactly just have it lying around. Red Cross soup is pretty delicious, fyi.
I'm thinking it's a law, all the pastry and bakery shoppes back home throw out their goods on a nightly basis. It's kind of sad to see, even if it's just donuts. If you're making that much food where you're throwing out a good portion of it on a daily basis, why not just cut down on the quantity you're making? That seems to be the easiest thing to do. Markets are the best. I can't wait to be back at college. There's an incredible market in that city, and there's nothing of the sort. There's one very, very small market (under 5 stands with barely any food). Usually what happens is I'll go to the market every other week during fair weather, and try to get my milk and butter from a local dairy farm every week or as needed. Markets are a great way of supporting the local and/or regional economy.