Birth From a Dumpster

The documentary “Dive” has the potential to be life transforming, and alone stands as a resource and movement towards education, and habit change. The movie starts out with young adults diving in dumpsters behind food stores to find food with hope to feed their hungry families. The truth is that its rare for the average person to stop to think about where their un-bought, or unused food is going. Nearly half of all food being produced right now around the world is going to complete waste. The documentary “Dive”, shot in Los Angeles California, follows a young group of twenty something’s as they discover the enormous wealth in dumpsters. After watching this eye opening film, serious questions start to arise about respecting earth, and you begin to think of the high price asscociated with this type of growth. Also the issue of serious malnutrition, even in America, suddenly becomes even more apparent after viewing some of the footage. In such uncertain financial times, this story of stretching the dollar moves to another level. Re-thinking your food consumption, and what you can maybe do personally to make a shift towards the rapidly growing problem becomes a duty. Food responsibility is important, and spreading the word is crucial in making the necessary shift to revamp the sad system that  currently lies in place currently.

Indeed, the world as we know it today seems to magically and consistently provide everything we need at precisely the time we need it. Food is no exception. At anytime we can practically walk around the corner for any immediate purchase, weather it’s ingredients for a special meal, or to stock up for a year on your food supply. Instant access spoils even the most regimented of food responsible individuals. Having a healthy diet is an extension of food responsibility. We are living in a time of magnanimous mass production, having food in a matter of seconds, no question of availability, no wait, just point and click. It proves hard to place blame on the masses because many people are obliviously unaware.  Food education, proper habits were not a regular part of open dialogue growing up. Food education doesn’t include teaching our children about misuse or unused food. Once you know however, it changes the expectation. Changes and simple awareness need to be made in order to ensure the future of our children. This may sound cliché, but earth as we know it, with all seven billion people roaming the planet, cannot continue to sustain a limitless amount of food, especially good food. We have to start thinking ahead to new ways on food production consumption and conservation. Maybe we should consider the nutricianlal values first,without beign food snobs, and take what is available, just because it doesn’t look pretty.  we are food snobs, evnenif it doesn’t look pretty. This is a good time to start searching for local produce and meats if possible, and by local, I mean farmed or grown in your city. There is of course the issue of cost, and again, in the financial climate of now, price is huge factor. It is the responsibility of each person to take all aspects into consideration, and make adjustments that are attainable.

On the subject, Malnutrition is a devastating truth that effects millions. You often hear about the starving children in third world countries, and that is true, but there are people in your city that are going to bed hungry at night. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but this is everyday truth. When I volunteer to feed the hungry, it never fails; I am shocked at the amount of people there to eat, only there for a meal, food is all they want, they are hungry. I think, we have food, food is available, hungry souls waiting to be filled with whatever the local food bank has to offer. The food is available, it’s a matter of moblelizing the proper food chains and agency’s and bringing food to the people. Thousands of people die of starvation each day. We can make small changes, change the mindset of your American neighbor, start to fix a problem that is out of control, feed the hungry. It’s not hard to become passionate about this subject, but once you learn the basics of the problem, you can start to do your part. I interviewed a woman at the local grocer, she said that they literally dump all dairy, and the meat is picked up by vendor. They do donate the bread, but the question isn’t why, the question is how. How can we change policy to encourage food redistribution? Bill Clinton passed law in the early nineties called the “Good Samaritan Act”, which protects big grocery chains from any lawsuit that may come by donating close to expired food items. This gives big food chains no excuse in wanting to combat the major issue of extreme waste.

In the documentary “Dive”, facts like one in every seven households are food deprived; 35 million people in America currently are food insecure. People shop at big food chains because it’s less expensive, they can not afford to shop for local produce or they don’t have the time it takes for healthy meal preparation. The cycle begins to perpetuate, not enough time, lack of money, and then next thing you know, your picking up fast food for yourself or the kids a few nights a week. The information in food statistics is not meant to scare you, just give you a different way to perhaps look at small changes you could maybe make. This journey is not without hope. During depression, and war was there was food rationing, and during this time you and your neighbor would take pride in protecting the food that was produced from sweat and hard labor. The time has changed, but the importance of respecting food or getting to know it better has not. You set the example by first ensuring that your home is in order and that you and the ones closest to you have the knowledge, resources, and materials you need to move forward. Once you have an idea of the basics, it starts to become easier for you to work these newfound ideas into your own routine. Proper food education catapults you into overall better habits. The expense of food is something that everyone has to calculate into his or her budget, why not calculate it with a shift in your approach.

No one person is trained in food loss. Half of prepared food never gets distributed; this has been said to be the silent tsunami of hunger, but now is time to focus on the solution. Ask your local grocer what they do with their near expired product, or unused product. Maybe you can get the ball rolling in your community. Call yourself to action, and call others to action. This is problem that is far reaching, and may seem overwhelming, but let the idea sit and then ask yourself, how can I help this cause. It once was said that Food is life, and should never be wasted. I believe this to be more than true. At its core, food is nourishment that keeps the miracle of the human body alive and well. We would be lost without this gift, and not afford to take our responsibility not to take for granted.  We have to recognize and respect the importance and impact of this to insure lasting effects of making change now.