Now more know what food insecurity feels like
What if I can’t get enough food? Judging by the depleted shelves at the grocery store, it’s a question on a lot of people’s minds. Even though the supermarkets are restocking as fast as they can, the sense of scarcity is hard to shake. That unsettling feeling isn’t new to all of us. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, one in seven Coloradans lived with food insecurity. Today, the rest of us taste a little of what it’s like to worry about the next meal.
This present crisis provides an opportunity to think about what we take for granted — food. In the United States, 40% of food is wasted. More than $200 billion of it ends up in the landfill each year where it rots releasing methane and wasting the energy, water, and minerals it took to produce it.
In Denver, the average person throws out 3.2 pounds of edible food waste according to research by the National Resource Defenses Council (NRDC). Household waste accounts for 41% of the lost sustenance while restaurants and caterers (25%), food processors, distributors, grocers, and other food preparation sites (like schools and prisons) account for the remainder.
Even as we discard an abundance of sustenance, others are tightening their belts. When we were kids our parents chided us for leaving vegetables on the plate: “There are starving children in China,” they said. They were right, but we don’t have to go halfway around the world to find hungry people. They are our neighbors.
We are starting to address the contradiction of waste and need in our midst. Nearly two years ago, the City and County of Denver’s Department of Public Health and Environment, NRDC, and the Rockefeller Foundation entered into a partnership to reduce food waste and food-insecure households by more than half over 12 years. They hope to prevent food waste through education, to rescue surplus food to benefit people in need, and to recycle food scraps as animal feed and compost.
The Denver Food Action Plan will succeed because of some extraordinary nonprofits. The largest of these organizations is the Food Bank of the Rockies. Founded in 1978, the food bank distributes food from donors like grocery stores and gives it directly to families or indirectly through partner agencies such as food banks. Last year, Food Bank of the Rockies distributed 60 million pounds of food directly or indirectly to hungry people in Colorado and Wyoming.
Last week, I visited the second largest food recovery organization in the state — We Don’t Waste. Arlan Preblud started We Don’t Waste during the recession when humanitarian organizations he worked with were coming up short on food for distribution. A foodie with friends in delicious places, Arlan asked Denver restauranteurs if he could distribute food that had not been served at the end of the day and was slated for disposal. What began with a station wagon and a few restaurants has grown to a fleet of refrigerated delivery trucks and mobile food markets, a warehouse, and 160 partners at every level of the food production food chain. Since inception, We Don’t Waste has served 100 million servings of food, kept 25 million pounds of food out of the landfill.
This week I asked Arlan how We Don’t Waste has adapted to the shutdown. In addition to supplying partner organizations that remain open, the organization is operating drivethru food markets to distribute food directly to needy people while maintaining social distancing. Foodbank of the Rockies and other food assistance organizations also continue to operate to meet needs. With restaurants and large venues closed for the duration, less food from these sources will come in. It’s a good time to make a financial donation.
It’s also a good time to think about the importance of food, the absurdity of waste, and the need to help others. The COVID-19 outbreak will end but economic hardship will continue for some time. We have an opportunity to innovate and build on the impressive work of existing organizations. In the words of the poet Horace, “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.” We can do this.
Krista L. Kafer is a weekly Denver Post columnist. Follow her on Twitter: @kristakafer.