"To a man with an empty stomach food is God." ~Gandhi

Starting today my family is trying an experiment (Note: if you use the word "experiment" kids always get excited and don't think of it as homework or chores. You can try the "Make Your Bed Everyday Experiment" or the "Disappearing Laundry Experiment" and so forth. (Caution: Don't overuse the word experiment or they'll catch on!) For one week we are putting all food not consumed in a separate garbage pail. We will scrape off our plates or empty the fuzzy cheese out of the refrigerator into a bucket. At the end of the week we'll weigh the slop. This is a practical way to show our family exactly how much food we are wasting. I challenge your family to try this as well. NO CHEATING!

I'm sure in the course of your life you've been to an all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant such as The Golden Corral. Have you ever noticed the amount of food thrown out there? Have you ever had a pang of guilt as you've discarded a whole piece of fried chicken simply because you've changed your mind? Gobs and gobs of good food is thrown in the trash because you have the RIGHT to throw away that mac and cheese and instead belly up the taco bar for a mere $12.95.

As you read the last sentence a child died. In fact at least every five seconds a child dies of hunger. Sorry if I've ruined the all-you-can-eat experience for you. Actually, no I'm not. I hope the next time you have the urge to buffet it, you instead send that money it to a malnourished baby somewhere. This unselfish act may even add ten healthy years to your life. Besides isn't the word "corral" ironic? It means a farm stall for livestock: a fenced area in which livestock or horses are kept. So stop eating like a horse and begin eating like a human being. Human beings are meant to love other human beings. We are not supposed to eat like a horse!

You don't need to go to a buffet to see food wasted. In fact studies have shown that Americans throw out at least *75 billion dollars in food each year. **World-wide half of the food produced is wasted. Talk about throwing good food down the toilet!

You might ask: just how do we get the food wasted to those who are wasting away? Good question! I'm glad you asked. We've all heard our moms say, "Eat your dinner. There are starving kids in China (or wherever.) Often a wisenheimer kid will respond, "Then let's mail them my broccoli." Obviously we can't ship our wasted food to China. No doubt it would be long-spoiled by the time it reached the other side of the world.

Here are some simple steps to stop food waste while at the same time feeding the hungry:

Buy less food. Need more info than that? You want me to break it down for you? Buying less food means stop buying CRAP that your family doesn't need. They need fuel not gruel. No more Pop Tarts, Pixie Stix--you know food with empty calories. Buy and eat good, healthy food (real foods like whole grains, natural peanut butter, bananas... Do I really need to name them for you? Make your own soups (free recipes abound at the library and on the Internet!)
I asked Siri and she gives me the calories of very specific foods. We live in a time where it's so easy to be the best we can be!

What you don't eat freeze for later. Invest in these cool inventions called FREEZER BAGS so you can freeze individual portions for another day. Voila! Less waste!

Save money for your family and feed the world. So with the buckets of bucks you save by not buying all the crap you shouldn't eat anyway and freezing quality food portions for another day you put half into savings and half toward saving the world.
Give money to the hungry. Actually do it. Those who are generous are rich both in spirit and in their bank accounts. There are plenty of GREAT charities out there. Do a little research online to find your favorites. Heck, you could even get a tax break for saving the world. Go superwoman!

So now that you're in the business of saving humans let me congratulate you! I for one am proud of you, and I know you will gain at least three important benefits. One, you are giving and everyone knows it is better to give than to receive. Two, you will save money for your family. Three, you will lose pounds and no doubt save yourself from an early grave due to obesity. How about a bonus? Four, you will save the planet from excess waste. Yep that's right. If you buy less you will have less waste. Less cans, less boxes, less plastic and so on! Giving away money so another family can buy rice and beans is far less taxing on our environment than all the excess packaging that comes with prepackaged foods. You know what? That family in Africa will probably even use the bag the rice came in! Talk about upcycling!

According to wisegeek.com the average American produces 4.4 lbs. of garbage a day or a total of twenty-nine pounds per week, which adds up to 1,600 lbs. per year.  (Mind you this only takes into consideration the average household member's trash and does not even count industrial waste or commercial trash.) Are you kidding me? Then again, unpack a new kid's toy. There is so much packaging it's ridiculous. When I unpacked my little girl's doll it took six wires to hold her bleached blond hair in place. Geesh!

Most of the stuff that fills the landfills is packaging, (I will never complain about buying bags at the grocery store ever again!) especially in the form of fast-food containers, office paper, disposable diapers, Styrofoam inserts, and plain ol' plastic. In fact, paper waste makes for about 35% of the total trash filling up landfills. Considering that most of this paper could be recycled, much of the waste problem is easily avoidable. Check out www.wisegeek.com for more fun facts on garbage and recycling!

Let me ask you a simple question. If you ate 25% less would you then decrease the garbage in the landfills? Of course! Sending money for a giant bag of rice to feed a family in Asia would no doubt save all the fast food cartons, candy wrappers, Styrofoam coffee cups etc., that would otherwise end up in the dump. But you can be sure that even the empty rice bag would be recycled. It's time to get real. You're fat. You're tired of being fat. People are dying, while you are wasting food by sending it down your gullet and letting the fat cells grow in number and size. I'm tired of this. I'm tired of my own lazy self. Let's stop complaining about being fat, and put down the Twinkies!

I've had many silly/fun jobs. My first ever real place of employment was at Macy's on 34th Street in Manhattan. There was no miracle. I was an elf in Santa Land. Six Santas with no waiting! Americans hate to wait, don't we?

Our fast food had better be fast, our downloads delivered at lightning speed, and when something is ordered, "my way" it had better come EXACTLY as ordered. Another job which allowed me to see into the depravity of man was being a demo person. As you might think a "demo" person demonstrates things. I've demonstrated everything from toys to how to make instant meatballs. Yes, I said instant! Fully cooked just heat and serve--take some home today! For hours and hours I'd put out samples and people would gladly take them off my hands. Some would even gladly bite the hand that fed them! Mind you these samples were always free. And yet people still complained, "They're cold. There's too much salt. There too hot!" Yikes! Most people just made lame jokes about, "having lunch" at my expense. The worst part of the job wasn't the overweight customers taking four or five samples; it was throwing away all the leftovers at the end of the day. Gobs and gobs of food were dumped in the trash while 25,000 plus people worldwide died each and every day. It makes no sense.

Did you also know that Americans toss out enough food to feed 200,000,000 people every year?[vii] What the heck! It's true, and we've been picking up momentum since 1974; since that time our food waste has increased by 50%. Can you even fathom what it is now? Come on people; we've got to do better--NOT worse! While one billion people are going hungry are we actually throwing food in the trash? Not to mention all the packaging that goes along with this wasted food. Think of all the water and energy that went into making the food that ends up polluting our country and our world. As families we must learn to buy, store and use our food more wisely. This is sinful.

Homework:
Create your own food bin for one week. Make sure everyone in your household participates in this worthwhile experiment. Whatever they don't finish eating put into a garbage bin. (You may want to keep this sealed outside!) At the end of the week make everyone take a gander and then weigh the pail. Don't cheat! Do what you normally do. If you go out to eat or to a fast food joint bring home those leftovers too. At the end of the week take a deep whiff of the rotting contents of the waste bucket. As a family ponder how many lives that food might have saved. Join hands and pray for the willpower not to waste food again. Ask your Heavenly Father to help you be no longer selfish, but selfless