Create a Waste Free Meal Program

An estimated 25 to 40% of food grown, processed, and transported in the US is not consumed. Approximately, 70 billion pounds of food is wasted each year. Such an extremely large amount wasted yet there are still hundreds of thousands of people in each state in America that suffer from food insecurity. Not only they suffer, but the environment too. The wasted food rots in the landfill and becomes a source of methane gas- a gas that can have a significant impact in the atmosphere if accumulated. Suffocation can occur if the amount of oxygen decrease due to the increasing amount of methane. Even at that, food is wasted while there is still the issue of hunger.

Hunger is an issue that should be dealt with. It should not be left to propagate itself. That is why after thinking, and examining the issue, I thought of developing a program that can contribute to the reduction of food waste, and the number of people who do not have food to feed themselves and their families. It is named, The Waste Free Meal Program.

The purpose of this program is to be able to take the surplus of food in factories, supermarkets, and even restaurant, to serve it to people living in food insecurity. Instead of having waste which produces a gas with 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, we can have food which helps people survive, be healthy, and promote the economy. Surely for such a project made to the benefit of the public, the local, state, and federal government have to be involved.

Having volunteered in an after school program, then a Dining Room Ministry at a church, I realized that there was a need for more room as a great number was affected by this situation- including little children. Moreover, people found it difficult to eat at least twice a day because many services opened around the same time. I called many places before deciding where to volunteer, and all gave me morning hours because that was when they served food to people.

 I then saw that it was good if the program included that there be a big room (or cafeteria) that can be used to serve the people. The local government of all parts of America can each decide which parts in each state (and if possible, each city) is in great need that there be this program installed. They can help find a suitable place that will be big enough to accommodate about 100 to 200 people. The local government is fit to interact directly with the activities of the program and as a government, give good contributions that can promote the program.

The state government can give each year a substantial amount of money to the program so that the program is able to take care of the kitchen, the kitchen utensils, the chairs, the tables, the cafeteria, and the entire meal program maintenance for a whole year. The program will have to have enough resources to function twice a day at 9:00 am and at 3:00 pm to give people the opportunity to have two nutritious meals per day. Each shift may last for three hours. Some personnel will have to take care of the cooking, cleaning, and functioning of the entire program, and to make it more effective, and professional, the program includes that from the money given by the state government, there be a salary for the workers. The Waste Free Meal Program has been set to work on Mondays to Fridays to allow the workers to rest on weekends, and to let other organizations continue their work effectively as most work on weekends precisely. In addition to all that, the program will accept volunteers who want to help their nation fight and put a stop to hunger.

Finally, the federal government can be involved to make it easy for both the local and state government to play their parts and make a nationwide program that will help reduce hunger. In this manner, there will be less waste of nutritious food, and fewer cases of hunger insecurity seen. The new jobs can, moreover, make the economy grow, the level of poverty decrease, which in result will decrease the level of hunger in America.  

I hope that you will be pleased with this proposal and that such a program will start to function soon.

Andrea Munda    Contact the author of the petition