Food Disparity in America | Teen Ink

Food Disparity in America

April 30, 2019
By Anonymous

Every year, an astronomical amount of food is wasted. While food is being wasted every year, a portion of the population qualifies as low security household or lower. Restaurants are wasting food at an alarming rate. Although few many argue that finding a solution to this problem may cost money; inreality, finding a solution to this problem may save money to people who need money, and will help save money in the long run. Although the amount of households with low food security has decreased since 2016, up to 12 percent of households in america qualified to be seen as low food security household. This disparity is a major because up to 40 percent of food was wasted in America. This wastefulness of food leads to food going to waste sites instead of going to people who are in need of the food. In the United States, people waste a lot of food. American families waste up to “25 percent of food and beverages” which is the equivalent to throwing $2275 into the wastebasket every year. By2 throwing food away, Americans are essentially throwing; not only food, but “energy, water and money.” This estimate of the amount of food varies from sources: from 25 percent to 40 percent , but one thing is 3 clear: American families waste a lot of food annually. Other than families, restaurants are part of the problem. Every year, up to 23 million tons; or 40%, of food is wasted by consumer-facing businesses. Out of the 25 million, 7 million tons of food is wasted by full time restaurants. This stems from restaurants not knowing how to donate(send) food to 4 places such as food pantries and food banks. Moreover, the fears of lawsuits that stops stores andrestaurants in fro m donating food to food pantries and homeless shelter, but according to the “Food recovery: a legal guide” such lawsuit has never been filed. This belief has lead to many restaurants5 wasting a lot of money and food. One solution to help resolve the situation is by easing communication between the restaurant owners and food pantries necessary for the restaurants to find places to send food quickly. This will allow restaurant owners to understand what the food pantries need. This solution will not work without proper education of the situation nor will it work without incentive for the restaurant.



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