Food Banks

So the price of food is going up, and this is a good thing for a few reasons.  One, it tells people that Climate Change is real and has a real effect on your lives.  Two, people should pay more for their food, because higher quality food is better for you, but unfortunately quality is not increasing.  Higher prices means, hopefully higher wages for farmers.  Higher prices also will mean more people will be looking into growing their own food, also good for your diet.

The problem is, that e quality of the food is not increasing.  Also, higher prices means more people will not be able to afford food and more people will be going to food banks.  Food banks for anyone who does not know, is a place where you can go to get free food, when you can't afford to eat.  When I was young, they did not exist.  About twenty years ago, someone saw a need and created the first one, as a temporary measure.  Now as statistics say, four hundred thousand people go to Food Banks in Ontario every month.  Higher prices mean this will increase. A lot, and generosity is not keeping pace.

I have a solution.  In Smallville, there are three grocery stores, and they are not affiliated with each other.  In Big Smoke, grocery stores are often affiliated with each other in chains, two but usually three links: high end, low end and discount.  The perishable food starts in the high end and moves done the links as the food gets closer to the expiry dates.  In the last link, the food goes into the dumpster.  Most dumpster food is not bad but looks bad and unpleasant.  Some of the food has in fact expired.  But expired food does not necessarily mean it is spoiled.

So here is my idea, it would work in small towns and big cities.  Take the ugly food and the expired food, but not spoiled food, get them before they enter the dumpster and make meals out of them and freeze them or preserve them and donate them to food banks.  If there are no volunteers to supply the workforce to do this then the prepared food can be sold at cost and provide low wage employment.

Problems: the grocery stores are insured for their losses, so the insurance companies need to be contacted to do this.  Walmart, buys food on consignment and does not pay for food that does not sell, so the original food provider needs to be contacted and their insurance provider.  So there is a lot of legal and insurance lines that need to be investigated.

Of course, making food banks an institution of the past would occlude the need of this plan and would not that be a great thing?