Why Do We Waste Food When So Many Are Hungry?

Blogger's Note: We received this from The Hill School last week, just another example of what a resource this institution can be to the people of Pottstown.

Author Jonathan Bloom

Given the experience we've had in the past month collecting food for the needy in our community, the idea of food being wasted when so many people need it is particularly striking.

That's why we were so pleased when The Hill agreed to host a food drop-off at the Center for the Arts on the evening of Bloom's talk. Bring a non-perishable food item for our Fill the Media Lab Food Drive.

Open to the public, Bloom’s address will also be a last minute opportunity for people to contribute to The Mercury’s Fill the Media Lab food drive.

Student Mary McArdle has been collecting food throughout the drive.

Those attending are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items to the free event, which begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Center for the Arts.

(Just because the drive "officially" ended last week, doesn't mean people aren't still hungry. Besides, we're counting Easter by the Greek Orthodox Calendar!) 

The Hill School will welcome to campus author and journalist Jonathan Bloom as a guest speaker on Thursday evening, April 12.

Bloom is the author of American Wasteland, a book on food waste, in addition to a journalist and blogger who created WastedFood.com.

Bloom comes to the school as the third in a series of speakers who visited campus this year as part of The Hill’s academic theme for the year, "Community"; he will raise awareness about the issue of food waste.

Bloom's book

Bloom’s address will take place in The Hill School’s Center For The Arts Theatre at 7:30 p.m.

It is free of charge and open to the general public.

Bloom’s blog examines “why we waste food, why it matters and what we can do about it.”

According to his blog, Americans waste more than 40 percent of the food we produce for consumption. That comes at an annual cost of more than $100 billion. At the same time, food prices and the number of Americans without enough to eat continues to rise.

His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Variety, The Philadelphia Inquirer, TimeOut New York and Boston Magazine, among others.

He lives in Durham, N.C.