How much food do you through away each day? Each week?
In these times of plenty, we consumers have this nasty habit of buying way more food than we actually consume. In the Netherlands alone 4.4 million euros worth of perfectly good, fresh food is thrown away annually. That's almost 50 kilograms of food per person.
Perhaps the food came in a damaged or incorrectly labeled container. Or the goods were deemed too big, too small, misshapen, or just not pretty enough.
Well, Damn Food Waste is about to change all that.
On June 29, the group will hold a free lunch using unnecessarily rejected food. Damn Food Waste will take place from noon till 2pm on Amsterdam's Museumplein. The goal of the initiative is to increase awareness of food waste while at the same time feeding 5,000 visitors using food they saved from being thrown away.
Participants - whether consumers, companies, or governments - are asked to sign a pact stating that they will do what they can to reduce food waste.
Did you know that you can drastically reduce food waste by
- employing meal plans and drawing up grocery lists,
- being smart about expiration dates (according to the Food and Drug Authority, many products can still be safely consumed anywhere from two months to nine years after their expiration date!),
- freezing foods to extend their lives,
- consuming smaller portions,
- not being so picky about what your food looks like
Besides a delicious warm lunch, there will also be DJs and entertainment, information stands, and other activities related to food waste.
And, just to make it clear... this is not food that was picked out of the trash, but food that would have otherwise ended up in the trash. Similar events have been organized in London, Dublin, Paris, and Nairobi.
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