wacky wednesday - it's just a date

One of the groups I "like" and "follow" on Facebook is Forgotten Harvest, a non-profit organization dedicated to feeding hungry people. Last year they rescued, harvested and distributed more than 40 million pounds of food.

They recently shared an article on their Facebook page that really got me to thinking about the waste in this country. You can read the entire article here but the gist of it is that Doug Rauch, former president of Trader Joe's, plans to open The Daily Table in Dorchester, MA in May of this year to serve the "underserved" population - the "working poor who can afford to buy food but aren't buying the right food"- meaning it is often less expensive for them to buy processed food with less nutrition than it is to buy fresh produce and make a meal.  The catch is that The Daily Table will be part cafe, part grocery store and will use only food that has passed its "sell-by" or "best-by" date or the "ugly" produce making it unusable and/or undesirable in other markets. The Daily Table will be a nonprofit organizaition and after some initial funding to get it started, Rauch expects it to be self-sustaining.

It's an interesting idea. The carton of milk with a "sell by" date of 1-27-14 doesn't suddenly go bad and cause food-bourne sicknesses on 1-28-14. In fact, I've used milk a good week after it's "sell by" date and it has been fine. I've also opened milk well before it's "sell-by" date that has smelled soured. And it went down the sink. The same is true of the "best by" date on canned goods. After doing some digging, I discovered that those dates are pretty arbitrary and unregulated and were instituted to make the American public feel like they are getting "fresher" food.

Most produce doesn't have a "sell by" date but we are a country consumed by beauty so the perfect shiny apple gets picked over the slightly bruised one at the grocery store. Grocery stores throw out literally tons of bruised and wilted produce annually that is, in reality, still edible and nutritious.

But what that really got to me is that 40% of the food produced in the U.S. annually is wasted, as in thrown out, at a cost of $165 BILLION. Holy cow!! I realize that some of that food is spoiled and truly not edible. But if even half of it is usable, there is no reason we should have so many people in our country going to bed hungry or not knowing where their next meal will come from.

Some grocery stores are willing to sell at a reduced price or give away this "out of date" and less than perfect food to food banks if they can come get it. The problem is many food banks and soup kitchens aren't able to do that. Fortunately, there are organizations like Forgotten Harvest whose volunteers work to get that food to the places where it can be used but the quantity outweighs the workers and still too much food is still wasted.

However, getting the food where it can be used is only half the problem. The second hurdle is re-educating and convincing both consumers and watch-dog groups looking out for the underdog that "out of date" and bruised food is still safe and nutritious. As a society, we have been conditioned to throw out food past its date. All of us could stretch our food dollars by using the "ugly" produce that accumulates in our refrigerator and not immediately throwing away the out-of-date food. I, for one, am giving it a try.

This ugly fruit and black cherry Greek yogurt 29 days past its "sell by" date made a delightful smoothie. Richard declared it both "yummy" and "creamy" - and no, he didn't see the ingredients before I made it!