This is a sad world we live in

Disclaimer:  I realize the businesses and organizations I am talking about in this blog are not the ONLY problem.  This is a societal problem that HAS to change.  

Ok, so I realize I am not going to change the world through this blog.  I hope though that somehow I am able to take what I am learning in my faith and serving around me to maybe make a difference.  

I went grocery shopping this morning.  In San Antonio, we have HEB and Walmart pretty much to grocery shop at.   My experiences this morning are not a problem of HEB.  I know this. 

We are a wasteful society.  We live in a society that is PROFOUNDLY wasteful.  I just searched global statistics on hunger on Google and found www.stopthehunger.com.  They have a ticking timetable that is scary.  Over 52,000 TONS of food has been wasted in the USA TODAY.  HOLY SMOKES!!  It is only 9:30 in the morning.  I have no words.  Well, I do.  


According to this website, over 410,000 people have died this year already due to hunger.  We are only 15 days into this year.  Here are some other facts I pulled off the San Antonio Food bank site that are more specifically for San Antonio and Texas:

• Texas is most food insecure state in the nation. Defined, food insecurity is when you are so limited in resources to buy food that you are running out of food, reducing the quality of food that your family eats, feeding your children unbalanced diets, or skipping meals so your children can eat. 16.4% of Texas' population is food insecure.
  "Household Food Security in the United States, 2004", USDA/Economic Research Service
• 4.9% of Texas' population experience hunger on a regular basis - more than one million people. "Household Food Security in the United States, 2004", USDA/Economic Research Service
• The rate of children living in poverty in Texas is 22.1%; the national rate is 17.0%. In Bexar County, the rate is 29.7% - that means that one in three children most likely struggle with food insecurity.
  Child Food Insecurity Report 2005-2007, USDA
• 12% of Texas seniors are living in poverty. That is more than one-quarter of a million seniors!
  U.S. Census, Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement 2005
• Texas has nearly the worst record in the nation for children participating in the free USDA Summer Feeding Program. FOr every 100 eligible kids, only 7 participate.
  Food Research Action Center, "State of the States 2006"
• Each week, approximately 25,000 people receive emergency food assistance from an agency in the San Antonio Food Bank network.
  Hunger in America 2006 - SAFB Local Report
• More than 40% of the San Antonio Food Bank clients served report having to choose between paying for utilities or heating fuel and food; 29% had to choose between paying for rent or a mortgage and food; 36% report having to choose between paying for medical bills or food.
  Hunger in America 2006 - SAFB Local Report

So why you ask am I all of a sudden passionate about hunger?  I went grocery shopping this morning.  When you go to HEB early in the morning, you can see them cleaning off the "unsellable" food.  This is food that is out of date, opened, crushed, or whatever.  The images are of the "unsellable" food.

I understand there are regulations.  I understand that this not just HEB.  BUT, I also know what happens to alot of the food that is in those baskets.

I asked the guy on the bread aisle about the basket at the end of the aisle.  He confirmed my fears.  He would scan it out and then "if" the Food Bank got there today, it would go there BUT "if" the Food Bank did not make it....He hesitated.  I replied "It will go in the trash?"  He hung his head and said, "YES."

THAT IS DISGUSTING!!!!  THAT IS PAINFUL!!!!  You hear about Freegans (the fashionable word for "dumpster divers").  Maybe I need to be a freegan.  All of that precious food may be thrown away today.

Probably even the sadder part of this is that I have been on the receiving and sorting end of the "destined for the dumpster" baked goods.  After they leave this HEB, they go back to the warehouse or food bank.  They are mangled and mushed and sometimes really nasty by the time they get to their destinations.

Several times I have gotten to go through what a downtown soup kitchen gets gets.  Often by then, rodents have gotten in them.  (yes I know but this is reality folks).  What was once a nice, pretty croissant in one of those plastic container is so smashed that it is not edible.  One step further-- I was told, by the Dining Room Supervisor, "Just throw the hard stuff and smushed stuff away, they won't eat it."  Would you blame them?  When was the last time you bought or ate a smushed up slice of bread?

Then it goes one step further.  Ciabatta bread, or as Jody and I sometimes call it -- rich people bread, is THROWN AWAY at the Dining Room.  It is harder more robust bread.  Alot of the people they see can't eat it because their teeth are bad.  I understand completely.  Also, and let's be honest here, a homeless person  will choose white bread and wheat bread because it is what they know.  Pumpernickel, Rye, fancy shmancy rich people bread, which I love, will be overlooked because it is weird and different.

I know, they are hungry, they should not be picky.  It is more healthy, they should eat it.  Let's get real -- living with a 4 yr old who HATES mashed potatoes, people go with what they know.  They go with what they are used to, what they understand.  Rich people bread is weird.  (Yes, I love rich people bread).

Where do I go from here?  Well, knowing some of the people who read my blog, I might get a few calls.  Sadly though, I don't know what the answer is.  Last year, when doing World Vision's 30 Hour Famine, I saw a statistic that we produce enough food in this world that each person can eat 3 lb of food.  WOW!!!  And yet in San Antonio, 1 in 10 has hunger problems?

:(