Mrs. Kelley Warren

ENC1102

Final Draft

1 April 2014

                                                             Reduce Food Waste

             Working families today have hard decisions to make with the economy not being as good

 as it used to be. Families are working harder to provide for each other. Some families are forced

 to choose between paying bills, buying medicine or buying food to put on the table. According to

 the Department of Agriculture, 14% of Americans do not receive enough food to put on the table,

 to have a healthy lifestyle ("Reducing Food Waste for Business"). What makes no sense to me is

 that 40% of perfectly good food to eat produced in this country, is either left to rot or tossed out

 in landfills ("Washington post”). What a waste of food. In fact, by reducing this waste of good

 food in landfills, we could be providing enough food to help families in need, the environment,

 and save money.

            Together we can reduce the food waste problem in our homes and community. According

 to Wrap, a food waste organization, there are five ways to reduce food waste, “planning,

 portioning, storage, date labels, and leftovers”. This means planning menus, having smaller

 portions, storing food properly, know what the labels mean when purchasing food from the

 grocery store, and get creative with leftovers and food still left in the pantry (“Guardian”), we

 could work together towards reducing food waste.  Considering, how much food restaurants

 cook and serve, there is a project called, Quick Service Restaurant Council, (ORSC) to help

 eliminate excessive food waste. The council is helping these restaurants reduce the amount of

 waste, by educating employees to learn a new form of tossing habit. The employees were shown

 how to recycle. There is one container color coded for waste, and the other color coded for

 organics. Participants saw positive results. Food waste reduction went from, 70% to 30%, and

 25% down in cost of waste management ("Fast food, fast waste”). Another way of reduction of

 food waste is by donating food to organizations and charities. This would indeed reduce the

 amount of waste in landfills ("Reducing Food Waste for Business").

             Lowering the food waste into landfills will certainly bring us many benefits to the

 environment. We can all work together to change the impact, that this brings to the environment. 

Reducing the amount of food in landfills can diminish the 20% of methane gases produced by

 food that is more damaging to our atmosphere, then carbon dioxide. Helping our environment

 can also help bring more food to the needy, with an estimate of 50 million Americans who are in

 need of food. Businesses also can benefit from reducing the amount of food waste going to

 landfills. Food waste can be divided from trash, composted, resulting in less money spent on

 disposal ("Reducing Food Waste for Business").

              By making the decisions to reduce food waste restaurants and households can also reduce

 their cost of only buying what ingredients are necessary, lowering the amount of improper food

 prepared, keeping in mind that this will help in the reduction of waste. . Another benefit is being

 able to receive a tax benefit by donating to food banks, shelters, and soup kitchens. SUPERVALU,

 Inc., a retail  grocery store, in 2010, donated food to those in need adding up to 48 million meals,

 and saved millions of dollars while doing this ("Reducing Food Waste for Business"). A program

 nationally known, called Rock and Wrap It Up, works with businesses, by collecting and donating

 leftover food from all kinds of events and then gives to the needy. Their reduction of food going to the

 landfills, resulted in feeding l60, 000 people in need ("Rock and Wrap It Up").

              Although throwing out food is wasteful there can be legitimate reasons why a business,

 restaurant or household would do so.  Food recalls. If there is a health risk during any of the

 processing or packaging of food, then a food recall is issued ("wisegeek.com").

             In today’s society there is plenty of food for the taking. With this in mind, people tend

 to just waste food without any thinking about the consequence done to the environment or to the

 less fortunate. Reducing the amount food sent to landfills will not happen overnight.  If we come

 together as individuals and as community we can reduce the amount of food in landfills. In this

 manner, there will be less harm to the environment, more hungry mouths will be fed, and the

 money saved will help the economy. Which would you choose, help find a solution or just turn

 the other way?

                                                               Works Cited

"Fast Food, Fast Waste." Environment 37.7 (1995): 24. Academic Search Complete. Web.

             25 Mar. 2014.

            "Live better Challenge." .The Guardian. N.p., 10 Mar 2014. Web. 23 Mar 2014.

Rock and Wrap It Up. Print. <www,epa.gov>.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

            Reducing Food Waste for Business. Print.

           <http://www.epa.gov/foodrecovery/>.

Washington post n.d., n. pag. Print.

"What Are the Most Common Reasons for Food Recall."wisegeek.com. N.p., n. d.

             Web. 1 Apr. 2014. <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-most-common-

             reasons-for-a-food-recall.htm>.