Around ⅓ of all food for human consumption is wasted yearly. This means that about 1.3 billion tones of food are wasted each year. To put these numbers into context, this amount of food could feed about 3 billion people every year and about 2 billion people on the planet struggle to eat safely. Although many of us are aware of the issue that seems ageless, we are still overlooking world hunger. It’s not enough for us to acknowledge these issues because doing so can only take us so far. We need to play our part to support each other because everyone deserves to go to bed with a full stomach. This is why I wanted to share some simple ways you can reduce your food waste and help others struggling with safe food access.
1. Freeze Food
Instead of simply throwing away your produce when it becomes mushy, try freezing it when you feel like it’s about to go bad. Similarly to most of GenZ, I love avocado toast but I often run into the problem where all my avocados become perfectly ripe at the same time. I can’t eat all of them at once so the second my avocados become ripe (or even slightly under ripened) I put the ones I don’t eat into the freezer. I do this for a lot of my produce and it’s great because, all I have to do is pull one out of the freezer and let it thaw, then I’m good to go! If you’d like, you can even blend your produce to make a smoothie. You can freeze virtually any type of produce and although the food may not taste as good as the day you froze them, it’s better than them going to waste.
2. Stop buying so much!
I think this point is pretty self explanatory, but I still wanted to discuss it. When you are buying groceries, try to buy items in portions that are realistic. Often when we buy in bulk, lots of that food can end up going to waste. Although it seems like you are saving money when buying in bulk, you are actually losing money from the wasted food. It’s ok to buy in bulk sometimes because it can be more practical but be aware of the food you are buying and ask yourself, “Is it really worth it to buy this much of one item?”
3. “Don’t toss that!”
Stop throwing away your fruits and vegetables that turned brown! This doesn’t always mean they are bad. Fruits oxidize and that’s normal. If there are some spots on your produce that seem unusually dark or wrinkly, do your best to cut off only the bad parts and salvage the rest of the fruit. Obviously if a food is dark brown and smells, don’t eat it, but try to keep in mind that oxidation common. If this really bothers you though, you can use lemon juice (or any acidic juice) to coat your fruit which will keep it looking fresh for longer.
4. Free Rice
I’ve been playing a game called Free Rice for a while and I absolutely love it! You answer questions from a variety of categories with different difficulty levels. You can answer a variety of questions from Spanish vocabulary to math problems. The apps allows you to generate money that goes to the World Food Program (WFP). Now you may be wondering how this works. Well, each time you get a question right, an ad pops up and generates money. The money is sent to the WFP and works towards helping those who don’t have access to enough safe food or drinkable water. You can easily download the app on your mobile device or play it on your computer. So, instead of scrolling on TikTok in an attempt to relieve your boredom, try playing Free Rice!
You can play and find more information about how free rice works here: https://freerice.com/about. You can play Free Rice here: https://freerice.com/. If you want to learn a little more about the WFP, you can go here: https://www.wfp.org/support-us/voices/get-know-world-food-programme?utm_source=freerice&utm_medium=eye-catcher-banner&utm_campaign=wfp_nobel.
5. Volunteering
Lastly, I wanted to give you a method that directly impacts our community, specifically for Calgarians in need. Although Calgary’s homeless population isn’t as high as other cities in Canada, homelessness is still a significant issue that needs to be addressed. Now you may be wondering, how does this relate to food? Well, less fortunate people are often lacking necessary nutrition in their diets too keep them healthy. This can lead to illness later on in life. Luckily, many organizations, that require volunteers, are directed towards helping those who have difficult access to safe foods.
Here are a few organizations based in Calgary heavily focused on helping less fortunate people obtain safe food :
The Calgary Food bank
Website: https://www.calgaryfoodbank.com/
The Salvation Army
Website: https://salvationarmy.ca/
The Mustard Seed:
Website: https://theseed.ca/
I hope these tips and tricks were helpful! Although this may seem trivial, by utilizing these small methods, you are playing your role in fighting world hunger.
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