What We're Doing and Why We're Doing It

Based on this appalling fact:

"Official surveys indicate that every year more than 350 billion pounds of edible food is available for human consumption in the United States. Of that total, nearly 100 billion pounds -- including fresh vegetables, fruits, milk, and grain products -- are lost to waste by retailers, restaurants, and consumers. By contrast, the amount of food required to meet the needs of the hungry is only four billion pounds, according to Food Not Bombs, an advocacy group, which estimates that every year more than 30 million people in the United States are going hungry on a regular basis." (IPS News Article: Food Waste and Hunger Exist Side by Side)

And this basic principle:

"We are not to throw away those things which can benefit our neighbor." ~ Clement of Alexandria

What we propose to do is:

Find restaurants, cafes, coffee shops, buffets, etc. that are currently throwing away large amounts of food on a daily or weekly basis, and asking them to let us bring that food to local homeless shelters, food banks, soup kitchens, and individuals for whom hunger and malnutrition is an unfortunate and preventable fact of life.

Here's how you can help:

Let's say you work or know somebody who works in a restaurant or other establishment that prepares and/or sells food in the Los Angeles area and know that they frequently throw away lots of unused, edible food. Comment on this post or email us here: wastenotproject@gmail.com and let us know!

Let's say you know of a shelter, community center, food bank, or soup kitchen that doesn't have enough food to feed all the people who depend on them. Comment on this post or email us here: wastenotproject@gmail.com and let us know.

Let's say you drive a car, truck, van, or suv, and have an hour or two of free time during the week and would like to use that time picking up food from one location (where it was going to end up in a dumpster) and taking it to another (where it will end up in the stomachs of people who cannot afford to feed themselves). Comment on this post or email us here: wastenotproject@gmail.com and let us know.

You get the idea. If there's any way you think you can help further our mission of reducing the want of some by preventing the waste of others, let us know!


"The time is now for the City of Los Angeles to ensure that we are doing all we can to make sure good, consumable food ends up on plates and not in dumpsters." - Councilmember Jose Huizar

A Few More Quotes

Solid Wastes are the discarded leftovers of our advanced consumer society. This growing mountain of garbage and trash represents not only an attitude of indifference toward valuable natural resources, but also a serious economic and public health problem. - Jimmy Carter

This country must make every effort to stem the rising tide of garbage and industrial waste through a more aggressive use of waste minimization and recycling practices. America as a nation is filling landfills faster than it can establish new ones. The waste problem is not going away, and it can no longer be neglected. - George Bush, Sr.

Wisdom understands that in a world of ecological interconnectedness there is no such thing as “away.” We don’t throw things “away,” we simply put them someplace where they defile the land, foul the water, pollute the air or change the earth’s atmosphere. -Brian Walsh & Sylvia Keesmaat

Approximately 72 percent of the waste currently being landfilled or incinerated consists of materials that could be put to higher and better use. - Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance

I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things we could use. - Mother Teresa

A Little Bit of Background/Our Rant Against Waste

The idiom, "waste not, want not" comes from the Scottish Proverb, "willful waste makes woeful want." In contemporary terms: "Wise use of one's resources will keep one from poverty" (thanks, dictionary.com). So, if you don't waste, you will not want. But let's take it a step further... When you don't waste, others will not "want" either.

The problem is, willful waste, these days at least, doesn't usually negatively impact the waster in a direct way at all, that's why waste is so rampant - when people don't see the consequences of their actions they feel no need to change them. What we don't realize is that waste often creates woeful want among those who don't have the luxury to be wasteful in the first place. It keeps needs from being met among the already poor and destitute of the world.

Wasted food, wasted water, wasted money, wasted time, wasted clothing, wasted paper and plastic and everything else we "throw away;" all of it creates woeful want in the world. All of it damages the fabric of our society; keeps the hungry of the world hungry, clutters our planet and our minds, contaminates our oceans and our lungs. It's easy to be detached from the true consequences of our over consumption and the ease with which we toss things in the garbage, but we need to realize that it's affecting us, all of us, in a very serious way.

I know the scenario in the movie Wall-E seems like a stretch, but we're getting closer every day. And if we let it get even more out of hand, I have a feeling a tiny plant in a boot won't be enough to save what we've destroyed.

But there is hope!

I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do. ~ Edward Everett Hale

It'd be unrealistic for us to think we can solve this problem all at once all by ourselves. But starting small, focusing on one attainable goal at a time, we can combat the consequences of wastefulness by helping prevent it in the first place. There are groups and organizations throughout this country and the world that are attempting, in whatever way they can, to fight the waste virus that threatens us. What we can do, using the mental and material resources we have, is help treat this disease while expanding the global movement that is searching for a cure.

A Couple Articles

NY Times: One Country’s Table Scraps, Another Country’s Meal

The United States Is a Food Wasteland

Our Role Models

Waste Not AZ

Forgotten Harvest

Food Runners

City Harvest


Second Helpings