WF reader Bess recently wrote in to discuss food recovery in the wake of natural disasters, particularly hurricanes like Ike. It’s an tricky topic, as storms create both a real need for food and plenty of food waste from power loss.
Stores are often forced to throw away all perishable foods. Even after they regain power, the amount of wasted perishables can be higher than usual, as fewer customers are around and they may not purchase fresh ingredients because they may not have the electricity needed to cook.
Bess lives in Louisville, where Ike knocked out power for hundreds of thousands. Newscasts there showed supermarkets throwing out lots of perishable food when they lost power. This surprised me, as I imagined most grocery stores would have backup generators. A New York Times article mentioned Houston supermarkets having generators. Perhaps only larger ones?
On a related note, the same Louisville TV station passed along these food safety precautions for power outages. Like most mass-distributed guidelines, they’re a bit cautious, but I thought I’d pass them along.
Anyway, Bess is interested in aiding food recovery by acting as a contact person between donors, transport and destination points in these extreme situations. Has anyone heard of food banks or relief agencies rescuing food from supermarkets in cases of power loss?
In one of my visits to D.C. Central Kitchen, we collected food from a White House kitchen when it’s refrigerator failed. Racks of ribs, lamb and other high-end stuff. But I imagine it’d be pretty difficult to find food recovery volunteers when wind gusts are topping 100 m.p.h.
There’s hunger in all lands, but the Ike-ravaged nation of Haiti is especially familiar with suffering. Donations to Yéle Haiti will help Ike victims there.
7 Comments
Thanks for posting about this.
My wife and I live in Louisville and have been without power now for five days.
We went to the grocery store across the street from us on Sunday and they had enough of a generator to run the registers and a few lights. Clerks were walking around with flashlights helping people find what they needed.
Their power has been back since Monday, but it hasn’t done us much good. We’ve been getting by with basic foods that don’t have to be refrigerated.
I live in central Ohio. Prepared for a hurricane? Yeah, right.
And yet, I and half a million other people were without power for at least three days. Other than the fresh carrots, the entire contents of my fridge became compost.
I, too, was under the impression that supermarkets had their own generating systems. It’s only logical. Dozens of stores were closed, including Wal-Mart!
This site is great. I’ll be linking to it from my own on Monday.
Thanks for doing the work.
With hurricanes in particular there certain degree of predictability. I know people have a lot on their minds as a storm bears down, but it would be interesting to see if a program to rescue perishable foods before the storm hits would work. If grocery distributors could remove the perishables before the power goes out and use them at shelters for evacuees, it would prevent a lot of waste.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/379713_organics19.html
A little bit of good news in commercial food composting.
The amount of wasted food people and companies throw away is astounding. I own a hauling company and am called to haul away waste every single day. You would be amazed at the quantity of food we come across.
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