Why 'waste' burns me up. I can't stand it sometimes. Another pet peeve of mine is wasting and/or throwing away perfectly good food. I realize restaurants, markets, and food chains all have to follow United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety, and Inspection Service or be fined but honestly, given a little imagination, '
expired food stuff' can be given away to help the needy which is everywhere. I don't know how many people, old friends, acquaintances that have two or even three part-time jobs to stay afloat and pay the bills. What good is "The Land Of The Free" saying is if you are starving to death and have nowhere to lay your head but a park bench.
I remember when I was working nights at the deli when I found out you poured out all the unused coffee at closing time I was horrified. Between being an avid coffee drinker and my extreme dislike for waste I could not believe my eyes. After closing my eyes as I poured all that coffee down the drain which made my co-worker laugh, I started bringing an empty jug filling it with the leftover coffee making homemade ice coffee to my little hearts content.
And then there was throwing away bread heals ~gasp~. I would talk about what harm would it do to toss the bread outside for the birds, or how much money it could save making recipes with leftover heals. I would make grilled cheese sandwiches with the heels. It didn't hurt me I love toasted bread heels. Silly but do you get where I'm going with this?
When I was living in Maine I was at our local market that had nice fresh meat. I was in a poor state of affairs so when I went in I asked the store owner if he had any expired product that he was going to throw away could I have it explaining my circumstances. He filled my basket that I dragged around when shopping and I took it all. I told him where I lived were little kids I would share this with. I also talked about how cool it would be to give this expired stuff to the needy. Lo, and behold he set up a day when you came in was boxes of expired products. Those kids I mentioned loved all the stuff I gave them and are teenagers today.
So when I came across an article from
Huffington Post's Chefs Stock Up On Unused Produce To Make Soap For Those In Need, I dropped everything else I was doing and with great interest and delight read the post. Evidently a woman chef name of Suzy DeYoung, of Cincinnati hates waste as much as I do decide to do something about it.
"Suzy DeYoung, of Cincinnati, is taking produce that would otherwise be thrown out, and turns it into nutritious soups for customers, nonprofits and food-insecure families with her organization, La Soupe".
What a wonderful idea I think this should be done everywhere. I'm sick and tired of uneducated people thinking that anyone who needs this kind of help is 'lazy' or wants the situation they are in. During the time I have been on this earth I have gone literally from rags to riches several times in my life and can survive either although if it wasn't for an animal feed store that would give me the torn bags of kitty or dog food they otherwise would have thrown out, the two homeless shelters I have lived in, the food shelf and the food kitchens, I would have been in quite a pickle.
Read the post if you are interested, I'm already in love with this lady and what she does.
I absolutely despise waste.
How do you feel about this issue?
