Denmark is doing it.
Photo by Witizia via Pixabay
It?
Yes, and so should we …
We … what?
WeFood.
Have I tied you in knots?
Just keeping you on your toes (wink).
In all seriousness, though, Denmark started something good this year, and it’s called WeFood—the country’s first surplus food supermarket.
“In Denmark, 700,000 tons of food end up in the trash each year. At the same time, 795 million people suffer from hunger worldwide,” reports DanChurchAid, the hunger fighting non-profit behind WeFood. “WeFood sells goods that regular supermarkets can no longer sell due to overdue ‘best before’ dates, incorrect labels, or damaged packaging. The products found in WeFood are still edible and safe to consume, according to the Danish food legislation, but have simply lost their value to the partner donating them. WeFood’s range of products varies from day to day, depending on the donations on each particular day. It is mainly food products sold at a significant discount of 30 to 50 percent of the market price.”
Photo by Love Food Hate Waste NZ via Wikimedia Commons
DanChurchAid uses the proceeds from WeFood to combat famine in impoverished countries like South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Bangladesh.
Learn more in this NPR “Food for Thought” article.
We all must do programs like this and feed both our locals and our neighbors. It is shameful that we allow such waste to go on everyday while millions are starving and desperate.
I can’t imagine our food police, including the USDA, allowing us to sell our surplus, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t happen. I just read that we have over a billion people suffering from diseases caused by “over-nutrition” as opposed to the approximately 800,000 mal-nourished. Isn’t that seriously awful?
I love this idea and the thought of doing it here in America! It’s so sad that food will be thrown away simply because the package is damaged. The food still tastes the same no matter how the box looks. If I am willing to eat food from damaged packaging, then I know those who are starving would greatly appreciate it. We really need this program.
There is a store in our town called REA. It is somewhat like that but mostly home goods and stuff not food. They have some canned goods that you can get but they are normally still in date. The other stuff they sell is like Walmart returns that they can’t re-sell. Some of the stuff may be used, but then you may find a pack of pens (my mind is going blank of all the things we get there), or something that has never been opened and it only cost like 50 cent or $1. My mom loves going and getting ziplock bags for $1 or 50 cent, and food saver bags too. That’s why we mostly go.