After volunteering so far this semester, I have grown curious about food. At the Salvation Army, they receive food from Target, Albertsons, Panera, and other partnerships with Inland Harvest. However, establishments like Stater Brothers and Vons that are within a half of a mile do not contribute to these causes. With the amount of light research I did, there were no articles or prevalent research done on this topic. Where does all the waste go? Obviously not to the people who need but do they just simply throw it in the trash? Or maybe they compost the left overs? Or maybe they do donate it but to another organization?

My question is this: why are companies not transparent about this? This would only give them great press coverage and a good name. Are they trying to hide how much they actually waste, or do they not waste enough food to donate? The more and more I started to think about this, it made me angry. For instance, I wonder what schools do with their left over meals. I understand that some products can be packaged and reused, but they have to be taken care of eventually.

All I know is the amount of food they can use at shelters is amazing. The staff at the Salvation Army get creative and make meals based off of what was dropped off to them the day before. In addition, they pack their food boxes trying to meet the needs of all the food groups and to be able to stretch for a week.  They make it work with what they have and help as many people as they can. One can only wonder what the possibilities could be if every company donated what they had as left overs.