MEMPHIS, Tenn. — This week, Tennessee is celebrating the work being done to tackle food waste, as part of the third Annual Food Waste Prevention Week. While working to find a solution to food waste, experts believe the solution could also tackle food insecurity.
Every year the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, also known as TDEC, says there is more than 1.4 million tons of food that finds itself in Tennessee landfills. In turn, a representative with TDEC says this leads to excess methane in the atmosphere, and potentially deprives people in need of nutritious food.
This week, also known as Food Waste Prevention Week in Tennessee, is meant to highlight the work of projects like 901CommunityFridges who are trying to bridge the gap.
“We just wanted to make it a lot easier for people to have access to good quality food,” said LJ Abraham, founder of the project which has been in operation for three years now, “The community puts into the fridge, and anyone who needs it can come and take it out.”
Five of these community fridges have been set up all across Memphis. But the problem is that as soon as they’re filled, they are almost completely empty in 10 to 15 minutes, according to Abraham.
“There’s a lot of people in Memphis who utilize this service every single day, multiple times a day,” said Abraham.
John Gore, who uses those fridges to help people in need. Gore used to be homeless himself but now wants to use his time giving back.
“If you hadn’t been there you don’t know,” said Gore, “I try to do what God wants me to do, He blessed me, I try to bless other people.”
But Joelle Ciriacy with TDEC thinks Memphians could fix food insecurity and food waste in a joint solution. TDEC estimates there is around 200,000 tons of food waste every year, a lot of which is thrown out before it even goes bad.
“One avenue of dealing with food waste is putting effort into food rescue or food recovery,” said Ciriacy.
The TDEC representative says, a lot of the potential waste could be cut down if businesses or people check the expiration date of their food before it gets thrown out. As long as it is still fresh it could potentially help out a food bank or project like 901CommunityFridges.
“And it would be so helpful if we had that instead of it going into the garbage,” said Abraham.
If you want to get involved in fighting food waste, you can attend this weekend’s Love Food Hate Waste event at Memphis Made Brewing. Activities start on Saturday April 6 at 11 a.m., families can enjoy cooking demos, trivia, and learn food saving tips.
Ciriacy says a good way to fight food waste is doing a food audit of your kitchen before you go shopping so you do not spend as much at the store. Plus, TDEC estimates the average family could save upwards of $1,600 by adjusting their food waste habits.