Comments on: The Produce Project: Day 4 http://www.wastedfood.com/2007/08/16/the-produce-project-day-4/ a look at how America squanders nearly half of its food Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:27:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 by: rebecca http://www.wastedfood.com/2007/08/16/the-produce-project-day-4/#comment-28739 Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:39:11 +0000 http://www.wastedfood.com/2007/08/16/the-produce-project-day-4/#comment-28739 found you thru food karma....you have a good site here and i'm linking to the others you have here. well, i certainly learned something today. had no idea that all that produce went to waste! it's a shame. why don't these supermarkets adopt a plan to donate all of that food to homeless or food shelters? and, as far as gauri's comment, i can't believe the store would actually prefer folks toss the food than to have them take it home. this just seems so incredible to me. i can't fathom it. found you thru food karma….you have a good site here and i’m linking to the others you have here.

well, i certainly learned something today. had no idea that all that produce went to waste! it’s a shame. why don’t these supermarkets adopt a plan to donate all of that food to homeless or food shelters?

and, as far as gauri’s comment, i can’t believe the store would actually prefer folks toss the food than to have them take it home. this just seems so incredible to me. i can’t fathom it.

]]> by: Jonathan http://www.wastedfood.com/2007/08/16/the-produce-project-day-4/#comment-11391 Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:15:37 +0000 http://www.wastedfood.com/2007/08/16/the-produce-project-day-4/#comment-11391 Wow, thanks for sharing your experiences, Gauri. What you've said confirms my belief: one person can make a significant impact at a store, institution or company. I haven't blogged about my experiences after Day 4, but thanks for the nudge. I'll have to get on that! Wow, thanks for sharing your experiences, Gauri. What you’ve said confirms my belief: one person can make a significant impact at a store, institution or company.

I haven’t blogged about my experiences after Day 4, but thanks for the nudge. I’ll have to get on that!

]]> by: gauri http://www.wastedfood.com/2007/08/16/the-produce-project-day-4/#comment-11292 Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:32:53 +0000 http://www.wastedfood.com/2007/08/16/the-produce-project-day-4/#comment-11292 Jonathan, I just discovered your web site! Good stuff. Did you do any more blogging after day 4 at the supermarket? I recently worked for 3 months at a small, independent, local "natural foods" market. There, one of the owners has a farm in town so at least for the summer one of the produce fellows who cares about not wasting, as do I, put the culled produce in a big barrel for the owner to take home to compost. That produce person and I no longer work there so I don't know what they are doing nowadays. Also, the store has an extensive prepared foods department so they tried to take perishables from fish, meat, and produce as much as possible to turn into something prepared. That cut down the waste quite a bit. What I also saw was inadequate tracking of expiration dates on packaged foods, such as aspetic packages of soymilk. They didn't keep track via computer, I don't know if that's possible anyway. Whenever I would find a product within a month of reaching the date, I would place it on sale and diplay it separately. Whatever did not sell had to be tossed. Apparently, prior to my employment, folks working at the store were taking those items home, but a policy was in place when I was hired to stop that and toss the items. Not only was it wasting perfectly good food, but folks were tossing the packaging in the trash! I would empty the product out, e.g. soymilk, and put the empty container in the recycling bins. Speaking of recycling bins, the store wasn't using them when I first began working there. They didn't even have any as the town just recently decided to pick up business recyclables, imagine that! I asked the manager enough so they finally got the bins. That's what I witnessed at a small market. Imagine what the larger stores can accomplish with some of these ideas. Gauri Jonathan,

I just discovered your web site! Good stuff. Did you do any more blogging after day 4 at the supermarket?
I recently worked for 3 months at a small, independent, local “natural foods” market. There, one of the owners has a farm in town so at least for the summer one of the produce fellows who cares about not wasting, as do I, put the culled produce in a big barrel for the owner to take home to compost. That produce person and I no longer work there so I don’t know what they are doing nowadays. Also, the store has an extensive prepared foods department so they tried to take perishables from fish, meat, and produce as much as possible to turn into something prepared. That cut down the waste quite a bit.
What I also saw was inadequate tracking of expiration dates on packaged foods, such as aspetic packages of soymilk. They didn’t keep track via computer, I don’t know if that’s possible anyway. Whenever I would find a product within a month of reaching the date, I would place it on sale and diplay it separately. Whatever did not sell had to be tossed. Apparently, prior to my employment, folks working at the store were taking those items home, but a policy was in place when I was hired to stop that and toss the items. Not only was it wasting perfectly good food, but folks were tossing the packaging in the trash! I would empty the product out, e.g. soymilk, and put the empty container in the recycling bins. Speaking of recycling bins, the store wasn’t using them when I first began working there. They didn’t even have any as the town just recently decided to pick up business recyclables, imagine that! I asked the manager enough so they finally got the bins.
That’s what I witnessed at a small market. Imagine what the larger stores can accomplish with some of these ideas.

Gauri

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