Stewardship over oddball & leftover food

CatholicAnchor.org
On a beautiful October Sunday, Omaha held its first “Feeding the 5,000” event at the landing down by the Missouri River.

Although the title is a reference to Jesus feeding the crowd, the event’s sponsors are not linked to a religious group. Still, I think Pope Francis, who said wasting food is like stealing from the table of the poor, would enthusiastically approve.

The idea is a food celebration which feeds, and hopefully educates, a large crowd with a delicious and hardy soup using food that would otherwise be thrown away. The chefs who created this tasty lunch used vegetables deemed ugly, misshapen, past their prime, or slightly bruised — the stuff that grocery stores throw out or never offer from producers because they don’t meet standards of veggie beauty.

I volunteered at the event with a group from my faith community. Although attendance fell well short of 5,000, it was a decent turnout for a first-ever event. There were plenty of activists with tables of information, from organic community gardeners to gleaners who sweep through farms for food for the poor after the harvest.

“Feeding the 5,000” events started in London six years ago, and are promoted by a group called Feedback (feedbackglobal.org).

Omaha is only the third U.S. city to host a Feeding, but they’re held all over Europe and more are coming stateside. The idea is to get people to taste something so good it’s hard to believe it’s made from what consumers might call garbage.

Have you ever thrown out a blackened banana you didn’t get around to eating? Me, too. Or made banana bread out of desperation rather than throw bananas away? I think there’s some in my freezer right now. You would be appalled to see how many beautiful bananas are thrown out before they ever make it your grocer because they aren’t the right size and don’t have — really — the right curvature.

Restaurants are another huge source of food waste.

The United Nations claims one third of the edible parts of food globally is lost or wasted. That’s over a billion tons a year. And food production naturally causes greenhouse gas emissions — but how sad to realize over 3 billion tons of greenhouse gas is produced for food that’s eventually wasted. Not to mention the land, water and other resources used to generate unused food.

In Nebraska, food comprises 17 percent of municipal waste streams, making it the third largest contributor to landfill waste in the state and the first in Omaha. Food waste is the top waste product in U.S. landfills.

In Omaha, Feeding the 5,000 was sponsored by a group called Amazing Grace Perishable Food Rescue. They run no soup kitchens, warehouses or pantries. Instead, they have refrigerated trucks, a reliable schedule, and both a group of food marketers, like grocers, caterers or restaurants, and a group of folks who need food, like shelters.

Restaurant leftovers? Maybe food just beyond its sell-by date? Trays never served at a catered event? Call Amazing Grace and they pick it up and deliver it on the same day. Health regulations vary from city to city, but Amazing Grace works within Omaha’s code to save a lot of food.

The organization Feedback has seen some progress in lowering food waste in Europe, so that gives me hope. The United Kingdom, for instance, has revised cosmetic standards for produce.

But when it comes right down to it, you know where lots of food is wasted? At my house, and by millions of other consumers. That’s a good place to start.

The writer is formerly from Anchorage. She now lives in Omaha, Neb.