Solving Hunger by Solving Food Waste is a way and method that can lead to solving the problem of food waste and help solve the problem of hunger that affects many people. In this article, I would like to present an interesting case study of Vince Hall , who gave a talk at TEDxSDSU about solving hunger and starvation. How did his organization do it?
What do we do when we don’t finish eating the food on our plate?
We just throw it in the trash because we are full and don’t care what happens to the leftover food, right?
While many of us have more than enough food to eat, there are still many people in the world who are suffering from hunger, starvation and poor quality of life. Now, even getting three meals a day is a real struggle. When there are still many hungry people outside and we are too full to finish all the food, do we know what the solution is?
“Using the reality of food waste to solve hunger problems”
As a child, Vince Hall saw countless cantaloupes or figs being thrown away simply because they were too ripe or yellow or discolored to be sold, even though they were still edible. In a commercial sense, these would have been unsold produce. This was the beginning of Vince, who is now a corporate leader trying to drive his organization through the lessons of his childhood in San Diego.
“Baseball Diamond”
If we have ever played baseball or watched a baseball game, we can probably imagine the game, right? When the ball is hit, the player must run to position 1, 2, 3 and Home Plate, which is the final position. We will represent Home Plate as education, work, training, etc. But before reaching Home Plate, we must pass through point 3, which is taking care of our physical and mental health. Of course, before coming to point 3, we must pass through point 2 first, which is a safe place to live. And point 1, the final point that is the beginning of everything, is hunger.
“What can hunger do?”
We can say that hunger is the beginning of everything. At the second point, which is taking care of physical and mental health, how can those things happen if we still have hunger? Because hunger makes the body weak, unable to focus on studying or working. Even if we do not expect excellence from the results, we still expect development to occur. But in reality, hunger causes the rate of self-development to decline and tends to get worse.
“Out of 8 people, 1 person will face hunger.”
When we look at San Diego, we may see a lot of people coming and going, and the development is obvious in the streets, tourist attractions, houses and shopping malls. But the truth is, surveys have shown that among all San Diego residents, there is a very high rate of hunger. It is found that 1 in 8 people in the city suffers from some form of hunger, and 1 in 6 children in the city are at risk of food insecurity.
“These starving people, who are they?”
In the wealth of San Diego, there are homeless people who are struggling to keep themselves from becoming homeless. Some are working up to three jobs a day. Some are veterans, single parents who are skipping meals to pay for their children’s education, some are disabled, and some are elderly who are unable to enjoy their old age. One of the injustices is that some of these hungry people are the families of military personnel who are serving their country, but whose families are struggling to survive in the food insecurity of San Diego.
“40% of San Diego’s food goes to waste.”
Vince Hall’s organization discovered shocking facts about the amount of food wasted in San Diego every day. That’s enough to reduce hunger throughout the city. Just a mile from where people dump their leftover food, kids are suffering from hunger at night, struggling to sleep.
“It’s not just people who suffer, but the environment as well.”
Food waste is causing serious environmental damage. Did you know that the area devoted to farming in San Diego is about the size of the state of Pennsylvania? That’s 30 million acres, or 8% of all farmland in the USA. It’s not just the land we waste, we also throw away the 800 million pounds of pesticides, 2 billion pounds of fertilizer and 4 trillion gallons of water we use to grow the food we eat.
“Natural and human resources are being buried.”
We rely on labor to harvest, package, transport and distribute our food. The entire lifecycle of food production, purchasing and distribution is buried underground. This is a huge waste of our country’s resources. But the bad news is, when all that food ends up in landfills, it creates enormous amounts of greenhouse gases (methane) that contribute to climate change.
“If we can solve both hunger and methane at the same time, that’s a great solution.”
Normally, the traditional approach is to buy more food and share it with others, to tell the government to distribute food to the homeless or hungry. But Vince Hall’s approach is different. His organization partners with companies that already sell food. So when you go into a grocery store, buy a bowl of soup for $1 and put it in their donation box, you can help a hungry person with your soup today. Or if you give your donation to the organization, they will turn it into food for everyone who is still hungry outside.
“We need to make sure that everyone who is hungry gets real food.”
What makes it different is that Vince Hall’s organization doesn’t centralize the food they distribute. Instead, they call on their partners and staff to pick up the food and distribute it to communities in need. No one is left without access to food because they get it to local shelters, grocery stores, and local charities.
As Vince Hall says, 3 things happen when we choose to help: First, we help reduce global hunger. Second, they get truly safe food. And lastly, we help expand Vince Hall’s corporate budget.
“We’re now in over 260 grocery stores,” he says. Vince Hall says his organization’s program is now in over 260 grocery stores around the world, including local grocery stores, department stores, airports, and now Starbucks, with over 30,000 stores worldwide, has reached out about using the model. Over £750,000 has been raised by the 206 Starbucks stores that have implemented the program, giving hungry families enough milk, bread, yogurt, and food to end their nights of suffering.
Conclusion
On the day we are full, but there are still many people who are still struggling to survive from hunger day by day. The leftover food that we throw away is not just thrown into the trash and that’s it. It causes pollution, creates methane gas that has a serious impact on our world. Climate change is a clear signal that the world has been trying to warn us about all along. Don’t ignore these signals, don’t ignore the hunger of people outside, and don’t ignore the evil actions that we are used to. We ourselves can change these behaviors. We ourselves can also play a part in changing the world for the better.
“Reducing hunger is not only good for the hungry, it’s also good for the environment and our planet.”
Solving Hunger by Solving Food Waste | Vince Hall | TEDxSDSU
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