Month: July 2009
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Friday Buffet
For those wondering what life is like at Food Banks these days, watch this engrossing video from the NY Times. “The food bank opens at 4 p.m. every Thursday, but the line outside begins to form as early as noon.” Increased demand has made it challenging for food banks to feed all of those in need. One…
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Some Summer Inspiration
For those of you wondering how else you can reduce the amount of food waste we create outside the home, here’s an idea (and a nice read): start an end-of-the-day farmers’ market produce collection. Margaret Gifford of Chapel Hill, N.C., has done that to great effect, with her Carrboro Farmers’ Market Farmer Foodshare. Many farmers’ markets have such…
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When Life Gives You Green Tomatoes…
I’ve been growing some veggies in raised beds in our backyard. As with most gardens, there have been hits and misses. Among the misses, thus far, have been the tomatoes. Thanks to the elaborate bamboo (quasi-native to my backyard, unfortunately) support structure, the plants are taller than me. Yet, I’m still waiting for my first…
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Friday Buffet
I’ve written about vacation rental food waste recovery (mouthful!) before, but here’s a recent news report on it (with video). This is one of my favorite ideas, as it allows families who’ve rented homes for a beach getaway to donate their vacation groceries before they leave town. — — Atta boy, Texas! — — From a review of…
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The National School Waste Program
Here’s an interesting piece on waste in the National School Lunch Program. I’ve discussed school food waste before, but I find all stories on the topic fascinating. The attention grabber is that tax payer dollars are being thrown out. Does that make it worse than when kids throw out their parents’ (also tax payers) money by tossing their veggies…
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Guest Post: Observations on Food Waste in China
Nathalie Lussier, the Raw Foods Witch, recently returned from a four-month trip to China. I was excited when she contacted me about sharing some of her observations on food waste in the most populous nation. Here’s her report: The “Finish Your Food Guilt†Trip There’s a wonderful, ironic comic strip by Mike Adams that really illustrates…
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Friday Buffet
The food waste book market is ‘hotting up.’ A book called Waste is now out in the UK. I’m excited about it and hope to get my hands on a copy soon. — — California’s East Bay MUD is the first wastewater treatment plant in the U.S. to turn post-consumer food waste into energy via…
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Junk Food?
Starting last week, Binghamton has a new, ahem, venue for preparing and serving free lunches: a dumpster. No, it’s doesn’t involve dumpster diving. Nor does it even resemble a dumpster. To be more descriptive, it’s a converted, nicely-appointed dumpster with recycled kitchen equipment. Waste Management cleaned up the bin (it was apparently sitting unused) and installed the used cooking gear. Every Friday…
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Free Fallen Fruit
Among the originators of tree gleaning, L.A.’s Fallen Fruit have a different way of going about it. They bill themselves as an “activist art project.” The group started by mapping and gathering public fruit, “which is what we call all fruit on or overhanging public spaces such as sidewalks, streets or parking lots.” They now have a…
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Friday Buffet
In fruit recovery news…Concord, California’s Lemon Lady got some good press. The Times had a solid piece on tree gleaning last month. And I just found out about Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle, which specializes in tree fruit and whose site features a neat map of fruit trees gleaned. — — Ahh…Sweden. Each apartment in…