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Wasting Leftovers
While working at a restaurant for
the past two summers, it was my responsibility to clear plates off of each and
every table; it was my responsibility to throw all the food away. It wasn’t
until I worked here that I realized how much food is wasted. As much as I
didn’t want to throw away full pasta dishes and full loaves of bread, I had no
choice.
There are currently 795 million
people in the world today who are hungry yet restaurants throw away an absurd
amount of food. I am not exactly sure how much food I tossed into the garbage
can as if it was an empty roll of toilet paper, but whatever amount it had
been, it was outrageous. The thing that made it difficult for me to do was
thinking about the millions people living who are longing for food; even if
it’s just a piece of bread.
What is even harder to fathom is
that this is the case for every restaurant. The restaurant I worked at is not
the only one that throws away food. There are restaurants in every town in
every country in America and all around the world; all of which throw away the
remains that people leave behind.
The concern of health is a
prominent commonality amongst all people. It’s no secret that getting diagnosed
with a disease is something that everyone wants to avoid. Food pantries and
homeless shelters do not accept food from restaurants that was previously on
other people plates. This is simply a safety precaution in attempt to prevent
spreading diseases. The lack of knowledge about a stranger’s health and hygiene
causes the disinterest of eating a stranger’s left over meal; the idea of that
is gross. Even with this in mind, it was just very disappointing having to waste so much that has
so much potential to help a ton a people.
Wow. I knew that restaurants threw away the left over food, but when you think about the absurd amount getting wasted its insane, and really sad. I think there are some places, maybe not restaurants, that recycle their food. I believe Trader Joe's has an open table type thing where they take the food that has "expired" (not really, thats just a way of getting people to throw out food that is still good and go buy more) and invite all those who cant afford food to come and take what they need.
ReplyDeleteThis is very true and very sad. Imagine all of the countries who do not have the basic necessities such as food and we have enough that it doesn't hurt us to toss a whole meal. I would not want to eat a strangers leftovers, however, something should be done to help this matter. I wonder if that may factor into the shrinking of meal proportion?
ReplyDeleteThis is very true and very sad. Imagine all of the countries who do not have the basic necessities such as food and we have enough that it doesn't hurt us to toss a whole meal. I would not want to eat a strangers leftovers, however, something should be done to help this matter. I wonder if that may factor into the shrinking of meal proportion?
ReplyDelete