According to a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), around 29 million people in the United States experience serious food insecurity arising from a variety of reasons. While the holiday season sees a rise in donations to charities that feed the hungry, the fact remains that the hunger crisis is year-round. What that means is that, if you are in the position to contribute at any time of the year to feed the hungry, your donation could make a positive difference in someone’s life.
Feeding the hungry: How to do it better
With growing economic hardships, you or some of your immediate or extended family, neighbors, work colleagues, and acquaintances could be struggling financially to put food on the table. Increasingly, charities that feed the hungry have seen an excessive rise in the number of people seeking food assistance. Many of these people have never sought food assistance before.
While governmental agencies have been swinging in action to manage the situation as best as they can, there is still room for improvement. Here are a few suggestions that might work:
Improve food safety laws
The United States has some of the most stringent food safety laws. While these are implemented for public safety, they are also instrumental in causing food wastage and keeping people hungry. Hotels, restaurants, food stores, and other food-related businesses throw-away tons of good food every day to avoid violating the food safety laws. If these laws were more clear about the food that it is safe to donate to communities that need it, there would be a vast alleviation of hunger in the country.
Put an end to food wastage
There would be enough food to feed everyone in the United States if there was less food wastage. Aside from the enormous quantities of food that regularly get wasted in the food industry, various research studies estimate that over 13 million tons of surplus food from US farms end up in landfills. Charities that feed the hungry receive only about seven to ten percent of surplus food in the donation. There are several reasons for this food wastage:
Farmers and other food growers may not be able to harvest the crops, fruits, and vegetables they grow on time due to a lack of sufficient labor.
There may be low market demand for the harvested food.
The harvested crops, fruits, and vegetables may get tossed into the landfill because they do not meet the aesthetic standards of the market.
Farmers and other food growers do not find it economically feasible to pay the expenses of transporting surplus crops, fruits, and vegetables to communities that could use them. It is cheaper to toss the food into the landfill than to pay the transportation costs.
Build better food storage facilities
The easy availability of food storage facilities that can accommodate and preserve large quantities of surplus food can play an important role in reducing hunger across the United States. If the government can offer attractive incentives to food growers to transport their surplus food to these storage facilities, it can lead to more food being stored in them and therefore more food for charities that feed the hungry.
What can you do to help with feeding the hungry?
If your circumstances allow it, you can do the following to help with feeding the hungry:
Donate money to food banks in your area
Your donation will contribute toward increasing the food bank’s purchasing power. It will be able to buy food in bulk to distribute to local food pantries and food charities to give to those who need it. Since food banks purchase surplus food from farmers, that can help cut back on food wastage.
Organize a virtual food drive
You can organize a virtual food drive and ask people to donate to it. While you may need to spend some time researching how to do this the right way, it can be a very effective and convenient way of gathering donations. Many people may even prefer donating to virtual food drives, especially as they can get clear information about the food purchased with the donated money and the communities to which it will be going.
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