Gordon Mallonee - Food and Community

Yesterday in class we watched a movie that showed the different ways people are brought together with food. As a society the act of eating can be very social or personal depending on how you go about it. Taking a girl out to dinner and paying for it is different than going out to dinner with a group of friends for someone birthday. In the movie one of the examples of how food is used to bring people together was the wedding where lots of friends and family came together for a special event and shared good food. A more personal example from the movie was when it talked about the Muslim tradition of Ramadan. During the month of Ramadan eating is only done before Sun-up and after Sundown. At the end of the month there is a big feast where family gets together and celebrates.

There is a very different community and tradition, that is in the developing stages, here at CNU. A group called the Urban Foragers is trying to impact the large amount of food that is wasted everyday. We do this by going to Grocery stores and instead of going inside to get our food we go around back and take a look in the dumpster. Everyday perfectly good food is thrown out and waisted. I have found Milk thats expiration date was weeks away. The only thing wrong with it was it had a dent in the container. So naturally its not good and must be thrown out. Noe where the community comes into play with the Urban Foragers is that we are planing to have a what we call a "group dive" where everyone goes to different locations and gets what they can and bring it to a place where it can be combined and a feast prepared. Then we will all enjoy a sit down dinner that did not coast us anything other than the time it took to gather the food that was on its way to the dump. This type of community is doing good for the world while at the same time keeping a little extra money in our pockets. :-P

However the reality of things is very sad. Think about how much food you wast everyday and the fact that there are still starving people all over the world. It is not right that America, as rich as we are, waste so much instead of trying to help others. So even you can make a differences, no matter how small you think it might be, it still helps.


Go Green or Die!