´Common-sense´ bill promises to save food for the hungry—instead of the trash
Senator Jenny Oropeza
August 10, 2008
When soaring food and oil prices hit our family budgets, when more and more people do not have sufficient money to buy enough food, when a global food crisis kills children, and when a quarter of all food is wasted and ends up in landfills, contributing to global warming, leaders must act.
That´s why I came up with a plan to feed the hungry and save the planet by using resources more efficiently.
Consider the following news headlines since late July:
Food bank operators throughout California report that demand for free meals has surged by up to 80 percent—the highest levels in memory.
Job losses in the Southland have hit particularly hard during the recent economic downturn, spreading beyond the poor to middle- and upper-middle class families.
At a time of record-high food prices, donations to food banks are down as much as 35 percent or more.
"This is probably the most people we've ever seen use emergency food assistance," Darren Hoffman, communications director for the 35-year-old Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, told Los Angeles Times reporter Jennifer Oldham in a July 28 story. "We´re seeing people who were making $70,000 a year coming into a food bank for the first time. . . . They've used their retirement to pay their mortgage, and gone through their savings."
Do you see anything wrong with this picture? Besides obvious economic stress, what may not be evident is that at least six million tons of food is discarded annually in California. The sad truth: Skyrocketing food prices, bad harvests and unfavorable weather adds up to a global food crisis. An astounding 800 million children and adults worldwide suffer from chronic malnutrition—with millions more likely to join the list unless something is done soon.
The need for action is most dire in underdeveloped countries, but people in wealthy nations are also suffering. California is not an exception, despite being the world´s eighth-largest economy: According to the UCLA Center for Health and Policy Research, the Golden State has more than 2.9 million residents who lack sufficient resources to adequately put food on the table.
At the same time, nearly a quarter of the food produced—more than twice the amount we need to feed the hungry children and adults of California—ends up in the trash. Discarded food, much of it edible, must be transported to our landfills, where it attracts vermin, flies and creates methane gas, a global warming contributor 21 times more dangerous than CO2.
Quite an irony, eh? On one hand, hungry people and a food crisis. On the other, wasted food and scores of accompanying problems.
It is for these reasons that I authored Senate Bill 1443. It aims to help resolve the problem by creating more opportunities for good, edible food to end up on the kitchen tables of the hungry.
SB 1443 accomplishes this by allowing you to tell your caterer where leftover food should go. You could take it home or have it donated to a non-profit organization, such as a food bank.
Adoption of SB 1443 would be a helpful, hopeful way for us to help put food where it belongs—in people´s mouths. It may not be the fully cooked solution, but it is one step. The bill has already been approved by the Senate, but if you support its goals, please contact Tomasa Dueñas, my policy consultant on this issue, at tomasa.duenas@sen.ca.gov before SB 1443 faces its Assembly Floor vote as soon as Aug. 11.
Please enjoy your next catered meal, whether it be Bar Mitzvah or wedding. But if food is leftover, think of the words by political activist Bob Geldof:
"It is morally repulsive and intellectually absurd that people die of want in a world of surplus."
Elected to the Assembly in 2000 and the Senate in 2006, Jenny Oropeza is one of the highest-ranking Latinos in the Legislature and chairs the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee. For more information visit www.senate.ca.gov/oropeza
That´s why I came up with a plan to feed the hungry and save the planet by using resources more efficiently.
Consider the following news headlines since late July:
Food bank operators throughout California report that demand for free meals has surged by up to 80 percent—the highest levels in memory.
Job losses in the Southland have hit particularly hard during the recent economic downturn, spreading beyond the poor to middle- and upper-middle class families.
At a time of record-high food prices, donations to food banks are down as much as 35 percent or more.
"This is probably the most people we've ever seen use emergency food assistance," Darren Hoffman, communications director for the 35-year-old Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, told Los Angeles Times reporter Jennifer Oldham in a July 28 story. "We´re seeing people who were making $70,000 a year coming into a food bank for the first time. . . . They've used their retirement to pay their mortgage, and gone through their savings."
Do you see anything wrong with this picture? Besides obvious economic stress, what may not be evident is that at least six million tons of food is discarded annually in California. The sad truth: Skyrocketing food prices, bad harvests and unfavorable weather adds up to a global food crisis. An astounding 800 million children and adults worldwide suffer from chronic malnutrition—with millions more likely to join the list unless something is done soon.
The need for action is most dire in underdeveloped countries, but people in wealthy nations are also suffering. California is not an exception, despite being the world´s eighth-largest economy: According to the UCLA Center for Health and Policy Research, the Golden State has more than 2.9 million residents who lack sufficient resources to adequately put food on the table.
At the same time, nearly a quarter of the food produced—more than twice the amount we need to feed the hungry children and adults of California—ends up in the trash. Discarded food, much of it edible, must be transported to our landfills, where it attracts vermin, flies and creates methane gas, a global warming contributor 21 times more dangerous than CO2.
Quite an irony, eh? On one hand, hungry people and a food crisis. On the other, wasted food and scores of accompanying problems.
It is for these reasons that I authored Senate Bill 1443. It aims to help resolve the problem by creating more opportunities for good, edible food to end up on the kitchen tables of the hungry.
SB 1443 accomplishes this by allowing you to tell your caterer where leftover food should go. You could take it home or have it donated to a non-profit organization, such as a food bank.
Adoption of SB 1443 would be a helpful, hopeful way for us to help put food where it belongs—in people´s mouths. It may not be the fully cooked solution, but it is one step. The bill has already been approved by the Senate, but if you support its goals, please contact Tomasa Dueñas, my policy consultant on this issue, at tomasa.duenas@sen.ca.gov before SB 1443 faces its Assembly Floor vote as soon as Aug. 11.
Please enjoy your next catered meal, whether it be Bar Mitzvah or wedding. But if food is leftover, think of the words by political activist Bob Geldof:
"It is morally repulsive and intellectually absurd that people die of want in a world of surplus."
Elected to the Assembly in 2000 and the Senate in 2006, Jenny Oropeza is one of the highest-ranking Latinos in the Legislature and chairs the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee. For more information visit www.senate.ca.gov/oropeza
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