Did you know that “more than 6 million tons of food products are dumped annually” in California? According to an article in the SF Chronicle, restaurants, farms, and grocery stores have the chance to make a positive impact opposed to a negative one. Read the full article “Vast Amounts of Food Trashed Despite Incentives”.

Restaurants can do more by participating in food-donation programs since less then 1,000 of the 90,000 restaurants do. Grocery chains and restaurants have the opportunity to compost their leftover food, donate to food banks, or participate in some sort of hunger-relief program. “Costco sends about 45 million lbs. of food each year to the compost”!!! In addition, “Albertson’s Inc. was the first food chain to start a formal perishable-food-recovery program.” Yes, there is the fear that the company will be liable for bad food, but the federal law in 1996 “protects all donations made in good faith.” Imagine the impact if more grocery chains participated!

Don’t forget that you can make a difference to by composting your leftover food or take action by volunteering at a local soup kitchen and find an organization nearby where you can help farmers “’reharvest’ California’s vast produce landscape and divert edible food to food banks and soup kitchens.” As Mike O’Leary of Boskovich Farms put it, “Waste is inevitable.” But we need to work together on this to minimize this.

To read more about food waste in California and to view a video on donations, go to www.californiawatch.org.