Wasted Food, Wasted Diets
96 billion pounds of food
are wasted each year
“In the last ten years you have saved Community-Suffolk at least $25,000.00 annually in tipping fees, provided us with a substantial tax credit and at the same time distributed our excess potatoes, carrots, turnips and greens to families and communities in need of food throughout Massachusetts.” – Joseph R. Piazza, president of Community-Suffolk, Inc.
According to a study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we waste 96 billion pounds of food in America each year. Weight for weight, that would be like wasting:
- the Empire State Building made of food every three days
- the Titanic made of food every five hour
- a Brontosaurus made of food every minute
- a car made of food every second.
Each day 35 million people in the United States have to struggle to get enough food. Nearly half of these people are children. A large number are elderly. But no matter who they are or where they live or why they are impoverished, there is no excuse for anyone to go hungry in America when so much food goes to waste.
(Source: http://www.endhunger.org/stop_the_waste.htm)
Fair Foods' Solution
To address both of these problems, Fair Foods distributes between five and six million pounds of food annually, supplementing weekly groceries with fresh fruits and vegetables for over 10,000 families in Greater Boston and Eastern Massachusetts.
Our food sources come from generous donors at the New England Produce Center. After distributors donate to us, we redistribute sixty percent of the goods at no cost; the remaining forty percent are distributed for a nominal handling charge.
“Dziama Company has been supplying Fair Exchange/Fair Foods with its excess produce for nearly seven years now….We know that our cabbages, squash, and other vegetables and fruits will go to people in need, especially working families and senior citizens who often are ‘too rich’ for state or federal help but are still struggling.” – Gregg Dziama, president of Gregg Dziama, Inc.