by Simon 39 Replies latest social current
(wonders if the US still hasn't paid it's bill to the UN).
Could it also be because so much of every dollar donated goes on admin.
You only have to look around some Third World countries and see who's driving around in the latest model 4WD vehicles. One large organisation reports 85% admin costs. That doesn't leave much for the poor people it was intended for.
most of the food thats bought in this country deserves being put in the bin.
Food is cheap, readily available to all. Easy come, easy go.
Food is cheap, readily available to all. Easy come, easy go.
The point is that it isn't readilly available to all
I don't think it's the cost of food or the quality but the convenience. With so many families having both parents working there's no time for good cooking. Another aspect of this is there's no time to shop daily so fruit and veg is rotting in the cupboard by the end of the week. I might be old fashioned but I'd rather have someone stay home an cook a good family meal than have to pay for unsatisfying convenience food.
I agree, wasting food is disgusting behaviour. I see little reason for such waste on the home front. I know how much I eat and plan my meals accordingly a week in advance. Nothing ever gets thrown out.
Walter
I work at a grocery store where the bakery throws away huge garbage bags of bread, rolls and muffins EVERY DAY just because they are a day old.
Several have tried to get them to donate the leftovers and even called corporate about it. They simply say, "it is our policy to throw it away." Like they're too lazy to even deal with it. They don't even care!!!!
Agreed Simon - wasteful and a damn shame, but this is just one area demonstrated of a consumption oriented global thrust - why do they still mass produce everything and at the same time fill junkyards with many items that could have been kept, fixed, distributed to others. The masses want more, there's never enough, nothing is good enough, have to be better, have more, and appear more uppity than the "Jones". The newest motto of the West - "Waste is grace, so screw the rest of the world."
I hate wasting food. I don't mind paying for certain conveniences, like ready to serve salad greens, but I do enjoy cooking for my family and I like finding ways to save money on our grocery bill. There are great websites out there that are designed to give you ideas on meal planning and the grocery order to go with the weekly menu. They focus on fresh fruit and vegetables in season, items that may be on sale in the supermarket and stretching your food dollar.
Everyone in my family knows that when I roast a chicken for Sunday dinner, they can expect chicken salad sandwiches for lunch the next day and homemade chicken soup (made in the crockpot) the day after that. If there is more leftover chicken, it's made into a casserole and goes into the freezer for those times when I've got a cluster of night shifts to get through and need to sleep more than I need to cook.
I'm teaching my kids to cook their favorite foods so that they're healthier choices than similar fare at a fast food place. They love cooking stews, chili and spaghetti sauce - and they know how to cook them using both the stove top method and the crockpot.
Years ago, we were given a bread making machine, and we use that for making dinner rolls, pizza dough, and sometimes even a loaf of bread! It's another convenience gadget that my kids enjoy using to help make a nice meal.
I find that cooking this way and stretching one meal into three or four meals has shifted my spending at the grocery store so that I've got more money to buy fresh fruit and vegetables.
We also have a small vegetable garden every summer - you just can't put a price on the lessons kids learn from planting a few seeds, tending them and watching them grow over several weeks until they are ready to eat. I think it makes them more aware of how valuable produce is in the supermarket when it isn't in season. We also keep a composter for fruit and vegetable recycling - all our peelings, wilted greens, egg shells and coffee grounds go in, along with raked leaves and grass cuttings. It teaches them ecological responsibility, and it doesn't take any longer than dumping everything in the same garbage bin.
Years ago, we were given a bread making machine, and we use that for making dinner rolls, pizza dough, and sometimes even a loaf of bread!
Scully, I bought a bread making machine a few weeks ago and it's great! I got sick of buying bread in the store only to have it get either dry or moldy within a couple of days. Now I just program it to have the bread ready for me first thing in the morning when I wake up. Nice smell to wake up to.
Walter
