yesterday, as many of you know, i became a head hauncho in the realm of warehouse life. my boss is officially 'on holiday' for the week while i remain at FareShare standing in shoes that are much too big for me. i'm holding my breath, crossing my fingers, and asking WWJD-- what would jeredine do?
perhaps i'm overreacting but to paraphrase my father, "if you prepare for the worst, at least you'll have a backup plan." it's unfair to say yesterday was a pearl harbour (aka a complete disaster) but it certainly wasn't smooth sailing (side note to the fam-- unless we're talking about that time we sailed back from the bahamas and woke up in cape canaveral.) i spent most of my day recovering from a rough morning. two volunteers were missing and marks & spencers kindly dropped off a huge, unexpected delivery.
ordinarily, i'd be thrilled. eight pallets of mouth watering stuffed salmon, spiced chicken legs, fruit salads, and lemon meringue pie. tempting enough to make me want to eat meat. except there was one problem: it was all out of date. all of it. everything except for 27 trays of yoghurt (about half a pallet) had to be binned.
and so, i spent my afternoon properly disposing this food because corporate bigwigs are coming to poke around the warehouse today and it would be inappropriate to flaunt their mistakes. i sound a bit bitter. i am- and with good reason, of course. yesterday was the 23rd. the majority of the food had a 'use by' date of friday, june 20th. if marks & spencers would have given us that shipment with thursday's delivery, we could have distributed it to all of our friday projects, thus avoiding yesterday's monstrosity of waste. instead, i threw away 60 pounds of chicken, 56 pounds of fish, 35 pies, 5 pounds of lamb, and 116 pounds of prepared fruit, dated the 18th. i felt like a penny waiting for change. and it gets worse- a 20 pound turkey, a size heavier than the bird most people carve on thanksgiving, went to the landfill because the packaging had been opened.
i was sick to my stomach, not to mention completely disgusted, for the first time in my 6+ weeks at FareShare, even though i realize that none of this is my fault. or is it?
at times, it's overwhelming to stand in the middle of a warehouse completely full of surplus food. this isn't second harvest. there are no schools, churches, or post offices holding canned (or 'tinned') food drives to supplement donations. everything in our possession has been diverted from going to the dump.
when did we, as a society, become so wasteful? i believe there's merit in the mantra 'if you build it they will buy it' but i also believe in the basic principles of economics. if we didn't demand it, they wouldn't supply it. who's to blame? what are the boundaries between corporate and personal responsibility? i struggle with this idea daily.
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3 comments:
There was a story about this on the Today Show this morning. They showed how much food the average family wastes in a week (or maybe it was a month? I was trying to get ready for work!). At any rate - hopefully more people will this about this!
p.s. I heard some great logic last week: "Why should I be a vegetarian? There are still going to be tons of cows that need to be eaten." Love it.
Hope all is going well. Appreciate your continued reflections.
Jillian
HEY!
Thanks for the update! I am so disgusted that you had to throw all of that food away when I see families getting by on no food at all for days at a time here in my village. It makes me so sad to know that all of that food has to be wasted. Thanks for your thoughts and can't wait to hear more about your summer soon!
Love,
Beth
Aw it's sad to hear how much food is wasted on a daily basis...even in the U.S. we waste an extreme amount of food. I hope things get better!
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