Written by Ana Ortiz
“One in seven people in Colorado don’t know where their next meal is coming from,” explained sophomore Landis Hackett. Hackett has worked at the local nonprofit Colorado Springs Food Rescue (CSFR) since his first year. He started out biking 100 pounds of food from Rastall to locations like Urban Peak and Marian House soup kitchen and is currently working as Media and Propaganda Coordinator for CSFR. All three Colorado Food Rescue nonprofits, including CSFR, “work to take food that would otherwise be thrown away—for example, food near its experation date that grocery stores don’t want—and bring it to a place where individuals face food insecurities (areas where people may not have access to healthy foods, or the money and transportation to get those foods),” Hackett said. Ultimately, CSFR not only collects food to give to people or places in need, but also tries to help those same people look for jobs to provide income for themselves and their families. As Hackett stated, “it is not just giving a man a fish, it is teaching people how to fish.”
You might be surprised by the amount of perfectly good food thrown away each day. Hackett explained the process of sell-buy dates that stores are required to put on products, and shared that there is actually a two-week period of time between the sell-buy date and expiration date before produce goes bad.
In a two-week period, that food could fill the stomachs of people in need. “Even when food near the sell-by date has not gone bad, stores still need to throw it out-literally dumpsters and dumpsters filled with food,” he said. In the United States alone, 40 to 50 percent of all food is wasted.” This is one of many saddening statistics Hackett provided. This problem is worldwide and is much larger than people might think; “it’s not just food being wasted, there is all this energy that goes into producing food, harvesting food, transporting food, and keeping it cool,” Hackett said. Basically, the amount of food wasted amounts to 25 percent of water usage in the United States.” If the food waste problem is fixed, then other issues tied into food waste can be be fixed.
Despite challenges, in the four years CSFR has been in business, they have seen great progress. In a considerably conservative town, CSFR is often not taken seriously as a college student organization. They have to renegotiate donation rules with nearby organizations. Hackett stated: “CSFR, before they could work with Rastall, had to work with the higher ups of Bon Appetit to rework their rules surrounding the donation of food because they weren’t allowed to donate food from the buffet. CSFR worked with Bon Appetit to rewrite their rulebook, allowing them to save food that would have otherwise been thrown away. That was a big first step.” Moving past these bumps in the road, CSFR has had some incredible achievements. “We currently are saving about 30,000 pounds of food a month, offsetting that food from reaching a landfill. We have saved close to 500,000 pounds of food since the start of CSFR, meaning we have offset food costs of local nonprofits and organizations by half of a million dollars or almost over that. For example, Urban Peaks monthly food bill was I think, almost $7,000 and now it’s at about $900. So now they can take that money and allocate it to different things,” he said excitedly. Hackett and CSFR will also be working with local schools in the Springs with the goal “to save food from the schools and to educate.”
The food-waste problem is worldwide, but steps towards fixing it begin with individuals. “Changing smaller habits and not buying or taking too much food is huge” Hackett described. An easy way to reduce food waste at home is by creating an eat-first list on your fridge, to make sure you eat foods that expire first. CSFR is always looking for help, whether that be giving monthly donations or doing a Rastall bike shift—anything helps!
Remember it starts with us as individuals to help this planet. “It’s about being aware, asking questions, learning, and changing little things in terms of the way you live to help better the local community and at the same time you are helping better the world,” Hackett emphasized.
As his mother used to say for her own nonprofit back home in New Jersey, “Change a Habit, Change the World.”
It is up to us, let’s get together and change the world one new habit at a time.