Americans Put Food to Good Use
Americans are far better at putting food to good use than are the British. My Google News alert for food has almost daily stories about food banks and the people who both supply them and those who benefit from them.
Grocery stores (and food manufacturers) in the U.S. are big supporters of America's Second Harvest, helping the organization distribute more than two billion pounds of food to millions of hungry people. (Click here for a list of food partners that have supported Second Harvest for seven or more years check out.)
There are few, if any, equivalent food banks in the U.K. Damaged packages and packaged goods reaching their best before date are sold at a reduced price. Fresh food is, all too often, thrown away. For a country that has been encouraging us to recycle every which way, we are more than a little bit wasteful with products that cannot be put back on sale day after day. We like our fresh food fresh. No surprise there. But what is a surprise is how little effort we make to help people without easy access to what the more affluent don't get around to buying.
Tristram Stuart of The Guardian has tracked down a charity, Fareshare, which tries to get usable food from supermarkets to those who need but cannot afford it. The group collects food and delivers it to charities in Britain that feed the hungry. Currently, about 4,000 tons of food is redistributed every year. If the U.K. were to match the U.S. on a per capita basis, there would be 50,000 tons distributed each year.
It isn't as if there aren't people who would appreciate it, even enjoy it. Nor is it a matter of everything that's on display being sold out. It does seem to be more a matter of recognition, both that there is a problem and that there are good solutions. There are many examples of good practice from which we could learn; offering suggestions and pointing fellow retailers in the right direction could be a valuable contribution to reducing both hunger and wastage.
Discussion Question: What advice would you offer to British people - individuals and retailers - who would like to see unsold but good food directed to those in need?
Sadly, and to my shame and embarrassment, far too much food is wasted in the U.K. Traveling around the U.S. these past few weeks, I have become aware of retailers who take packaged goods approaching their best before date and donate them to food banks rather than reducing the price for their regular customers as a British supermarket would. At Chino's Farm in California on Sunday, I asked the owner what would happen to the baskets full of freshly picked salad leaves and vegetables that were left at the end of the day. She replied that they would be taken to a nearby church for distribution. More baskets of leaves and vegetables would be picked for sale the next morning. Nothing that was in good condition was discarded; everything not sold would be donated and probably much appreciated.