I work at a retirement home on the side, and I must declare that the amount of food that goes to waste, for the mere reason of the inconvenience of the lack of people that would appreciate such food. It is a choice between trying to find someone who hungers and trying to find a trash can. To be fair, after all the old people are served, all the staff do get offered any extra meals, but besides that, it is all thrown into the trash. One time I witnessed one of the chefs simply scrape an entire oven tray of bread rolls into the trash as if he had done it millions of times before (which he has). When you also look at the percentage of the food that the old people are eating, it is overwhelmingly common for them to leave part of the meal on the plate, or a bit of their drink, all of these things added up yields massive amounts of wasted food, not only at this retirement home, but every business that serves food as well as homes. I take advantage of this free food that is given at the end of my shifts and bring them home in a take out container, I then freeze these meals in sealable containers and take it to work for lunch the following days or weeks. Doing this has allowed me too invent an illogical excuse for gluttony disguised as virtuous environmentalism, eating food that would have been otherwise thrown out. It feels as if I am making revenue that never existed to anyone besides myself. In the beginning of this correlation, I would eat dinner at home before work, then after work, eat a second retirement home dinner, and in my mind be completely okay with that. Yes I am young, yes the food is good, yes the food would have been trashed otherwise, but does that mean I can be a glutton? The reason this society is so difficult is because of the free choice we have, the availability that is a byproduct of this wasteful society. I remember during the shmoevid-19 times, when farmers would repetitively grow and trash produce to time it with the demand of the market. I have taken this to an extreme, when my family leaves food on their plate, I tend to scrape extra leftovers off and into my mouth (clean stuff only though). I have always been interesting in trying to see the minimal amount of food I need to function, as the savings in my time and money would be dramatic in the long term, but this immediately gets thrown out the window when there is an overwhelming amount of food. My short term brain tells me to eat until it is gone, and my long term brain tells me to freeze it for future preservation. The waste in our society is a direct result of our desire for convienience and a luxary filled life, meaning that if we can learn to not want these things, then we can take advantage of this waste and conserve our resources, our wealth, and our very lives. Instead of buying a new electronic when it breaks, one can get a broken one of a similar type to soder and fix any broken circuitry, we can freeze the excess amounts of food we have for later, we can use old wood or bricks received for free for new construction projects. There is so much opportunity that gets plundered by our natural inclination to waste and feed on more. I dunno, God gave me this free will, I just need to have self control and not eat everything that I have the opportunity to eat. That’s all. The dinners I do get from the retirement home are not even that nutritious usually, it is mostly american foods that the old people eat up, even though it is bad for them at that age.



Free grilled cheese I got after a shift, froze it for an emergency meal one day...

June 25th, 2024 - Saving da wrld one bite at da time...