BELLAIRE • MEMORIAL • RIVER OAKS • TANGLEWOOD • WEST UNIVERSITY

Food for thought

By Evan Williams, age 13 | April 27, 2023

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WASTE NOT Evan Williams, an eighth grader at River Oaks Baptist School, outlines a few ways for people to cut down on their households’ food waste.

Did you know Americans waste 119 billion pounds of food each year? That number, from the nonprofit Feeding America, equals roughly 130 billion meals and more than $408 billion of wasted food. Although you might not realize it, you might be wasting food in your own house. According to a UN report, 61 percent of food waste comes from households. The other 26 percent is from food service and 13 percent from retail. Instead of food rotting in your pantry, it could be going to communities that need it. Food waste has become a major issue, so here are some ways to prevent it.

Making a shopping list has many benefits, including organizing what food your family eats and being aware of what they don’t. Say you purchased eggs, granola bars, and fruit snacks the last time you were at the grocery store. When you’re making your list for your next trip, you notice you have a lot of fruit snacks left. Now you will know not to buy more fruit snacks, preventing food waste.

By storing food properly, you can prevent food from going bad early and prevent foodborne illnesses. Once you finish shopping, immediately put perishable food into the refrigerator to stop it from spoiling. You can also wash the bottoms of any containers that have been sitting in stores so you can keep harmful bacteria out of your refrigerator. Plus, make sure to keep refrigerators and fridges at the proper temperatures to avoid food going bad. Your refrigerator should be at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or lower, and your freezer should be at 0 degrees Fahrenheit.

Food waste is a huge issue in our modern-day community, and there are many easy ways to prevent it. Food insecurity, the condition of not having access to enough food to meet basic needs, is also a major issue. Data from local food-rescue nonprofit Second Servings shows that 16.3 percent of Houstonians are food insecure, including 23.2 percent of children in Houston. To help people with scant food resources and put an end to food waste, consider volunteering for a shift at Kids Meals or the Houston Food Bank. Together, we can help to put an end to food waste forever.

Editor's note: Read more about local food-rescue nonprofit Second Servings here.

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