Connor Blake

Alldredge

Grade 8

5/26/2017

     Food Waste

If there are so many backyards with orchards and fruit trees that have tons of fruit going to waste, then why are people in Santa Barbara and other places around the world still faced with hunger? While many people have fruit trees and may take a couple oranges a week or a couple apples, many of this fruit goes to waste. I for one have an orchard that we pick almost nothing from. All of this unused fruit goes to waste, while many people really need this food. While there is already a service that allows you to sign up to get all of your fruit picked and donated, many people with unused fruit do not take advantage of this.

Without a solution, people will continue to waste food, which is not acceptable. One solution to this problem is a mandatory requirement to donate food that is not being used. With this law people would be required to donate produce that is being wasted. Once a person has registered a monthly or weekly free service team would come and harvest any produce that has been selected to be picked. This way we can cut down the amount of food waste and feed many people who don't have so much food.

Another solution could be to offer a low yet fitting price for people's wasted produce. This could be a possible solution because people would be more open to getting paid for the fruit that they grow rather than it being donated. This could increase the amount of people participating in the donation. While this could be more expensive than the other option of mandatory donation, it could be worth it if we get a bigger income of produce.