Reducing Waste

For the past couple of days I've been staying with my grandmother. She is a part of what is collectively known as "The Greatest Generation". This is the generation that survived the Great Depression and fought in World War II. Now, my grandmother didn't fight in World War II but she does know a thing or two about surviving a Great Depression.

The South Plains Food Bank's mission starts out by saying, "food banking solves two problems: food and waste". It's the second part that we don't always focus on - waste. This is the part my grandmother (and many in her generation) do so well. Here are a few of the little things she does: she will save an old paper towel roll (the brown cardboard part) and clean out the plastic bags that cereal comes in (from inside the box), she will then wrap the plastic around the roll, secure it with a rubber band and voila! - wax paper! When she orders a hamburger, she will take the top bun off, take it home in a napkin and eat it for breakfast the next morning. I could go on but you get the idea! As a child, I used to wonder why she did all these things and wondered if it really made a difference. Fact is, it does make a difference.

I love that the South Plains Food Bank (and food banks across the country) are able to take food that would otherwise go to waste and get it in the hands (and mouths) of the hungry. So many of us have so much and we waste what we have. In a time of recession we tend to think about ways to save and we get creative about how to make things last longer. Imagine if we did that all the time, not just when times are hard? Maybe, just maybe, the hard times wouldn't hurt quite so bad. I don't know, it's just some food for thought!