Conscious Clipper

With advance apologies for the painful reminder of Tom Brady’s recent betrayal, picture for a moment Gillette stadium.

Now, picture the stadium full of corn. Then, imagine we lined up 261 corn-filled stadiums one after the other.

Welcome to one single corn farm in Iowa.

And yet, while we belt proudly about our land of plenty and our “amber waves of grain”, 40% of our post-harvest food supply is wasted every year.

The coming climate crisis demands that we cease this kind of waste/ When it comes to sustainability, the name of the game is efficiency — something that our current farming system severely lacks. The amount of carbon emissions generated by the machines necessary to plant, maintain, and harvest crops — not to mention the river-threatening pesticides and fertilizers blanketing the fields — is taking a heavy toll on our planet. And still, 40% of that work is thrown away. Contrast those numbers with the fact that 35 million Americans went hungry in 2019, and one begins to see the bizarre nature of our nation’s problem with waste.

In the past, no scrap of food was trashed. After the primary harvest, leftover crops would be collected from the farmers’ fields — farmers worked too hard to let anything go to waste.

Today, capitalism dictates that anything not cost-effective can’t be sold. Then, if the product is lucky enough to be harvested, it must pass beauty standards stricter than a pack of teenage girls: the imperfect are shunned.

This phenomenon is a symptom, not the cause, of a society grown too used to plenty. In fact, the average American wastes 31.9% of their food. Annually, that adds up to $240 million shoveled straight from cart to can.

For many around Norwell, lack of food is not a major issue, and the experience of empty shelves early in the pandemic was a jolting shock. However, for many of our neighbors in the South Shore and beyond, being bubble wrapped by privilege is not an option.

According to Matthew Martin, Regional Manager of the End Hunger New England project, the amount of hungry people in the United States is currently at a 400 year high. The pandemic has only exacerbated this problem; Martin reported that the pandemic has caused food-insecurity to rise 150% in New England — “I stay awake at night trying to figure out how we can feed that many hungry people”.

In Massachusetts, the $13.5 minimum wage means that to rent a two-bedroom house, you would need to work 111 hours every week, leaving 57 hours for eating, sleeping, commuting, and living. In this system, it is no surprise that obesity has skyrocketed among the poor, who turn to the cheap, filler, nutrient-poor food to feed their hungry families. “That’s not living,” said Martin, “that’s barely surviving.”

In the face of all of this waste, we know that we can’t continue down this path — “We all want our individual freedoms, but this has resulted in an increase of 45 mil hungry people since I was 12, and now I'm 46”. To make the changes we need, programs like End Hunger New England will be vitally important.

In a warehouse in Pembroke, Matthew Martin meets up with volunteers who work in 1-3 hour shifts packaging oats, rice, dried vegetables, and more into nutrient-rich and healthy meals. In the three hours I spent volunteering there over February break, I was amazed at the system’s efficiency. Volunteers work assembly-line style to measure specific quantities of each ingredient so that nothing is wasted and each meal is ready to go for a family in need.

Here’s how it works: Martin waits until he gets $4500 in donations, and then purchases $4500 worth of supplies to make these meal kits. Then, volunteers come in to measure and package up the food, which is then driven by other volunteers to food pantries and homeless shelters across New England, feeding over four million hungry people in 2020!

The amount of food End Hunger New England can distribute is contingent, like so many things in this world, on funding. “The infrastructure is there, and there are 300 times as many food pantries now as in the past. With unlimited money, we could end hunger,” said Martin, “all we need is money to get the product through the funnel.”

That’s where we come in. To fight climate change as to fight hunger, the solution lies not in the extraordinary feats of a few, but in the ordinary actions of the many. According to Martin, all it takes is five cents and five seconds. “If everyday, you put a nickel on your bureau and decided to spend 5 seconds helping out, that would add up to twenty-five minutes and twenty bucks a year.” And, if all 12.5 million people in New England who can look into their fridge and find food there did that, “all of the hungry people in New England get food everyday. Period.”

And there are so many ways to get involved. Donate your time, money, or some hours in the car driving boxes of food to local pantries. In addition to helping end hunger, there are ways to cut down food waste in your personal life to address the root cause of efficient farming.

Firstly, let’s talk leftovers. After volunteering at EHNE, I found a new appreciation for just how important consuming all of your food is; eating those day-old leftovers are a big step towards reducing your waste. Also, think ahead when going food shopping to prevent overshopping and waste of food.

When you are at the market, don’t be fooled by the shiniest apples or the most round oranges. Buy instead the ‘ugly’ produce with the weird knobs and knubs — they've got more character! Or, subscribe to a service like Misfits Market that rescues ugly produce from being waster. And, if you are a fellow banana-lover, buying multiple individual bananas instead of one bunch prevents the orphans from rotting and being thrown out — adopt some lonely produce!

Another great way is to reduce your meat consumption, something Martin calls ‘downshifting’. The reality is, by 2050, if we want the planet to be sustainable for 10 billion people, we can each only consume around one pound of meat per month (the average American currently consumes their body weight in meat).

But change doesn’t have to be huge. “If you are a beef eater, eat pork, if you are a pork eater, eat chicken, if you are a chicken eater, try fish,” said Martin, “or try incorporating meat-free Monday into your life”.

When we think about climate change, we must think about the amount of suffering that will rapidly increase as worsening natural disasters further increase hunger. In the face of such a complex and multifaceted issue, the best defense is looking after our own communities, something Martin has made his life’s work.

“Everyone wants to change the world. But if you look after your neighbors, your town, or your community, actions like that add up to great change.”

When it comes to service, we each should go back for seconds.

The Conscious Clipper is written by Rose Hansen

End Hunger New England never spends any money on advertising, so they need our help to spread the word. Share this link, and sign up to volunteer today! With advance apologies for the painful reminder of Tom Brady’s recent betrayal, picture for a moment Gillette stadium.

Now, picture the stadium full of corn. Then, imagine we lined up 261 corn-filled stadiums one after the other.

Welcome to one single corn farm in Iowa.

And yet, while we belt proudly about our land of plenty and our “amber waves of grain”, 40% of our post-harvest food supply is wasted every year.

The coming climate crisis demands that we cease this kind of waste/ When it comes to sustainability, the name of the game is efficiency — something that our current farming system severely lacks. The amount of carbon emissions generated by the machines necessary to plant, maintain, and harvest crops — not to mention the river-threatening pesticides and fertilizers blanketing the fields — is taking a heavy toll on our planet. And still, 40% of that work is thrown away. Contrast those numbers with the fact that 35 million Americans went hungry in 2019, and one begins to see the bizarre nature of our nation’s problem with waste.

In the past, no scrap of food was trashed. After the primary harvest, leftover crops would be collected from the farmers’ fields — farmers worked too hard to let anything go to waste.

Today, capitalism dictates that anything not cost-effective can’t be sold. Then, if the product is lucky enough to be harvested, it must pass beauty standards stricter than a pack of teenage girls: the imperfect are shunned.

This phenomenon is a symptom, not the cause, of a society grown too used to plenty. In fact, the average American wastes 31.9% of their food. Annually, that adds up to $240 million shoveled straight from cart to can.

For many around Norwell, lack of food is not a major issue, and the experience of empty shelves early in the pandemic was a jolting shock. However, for many of our neighbors in the South Shore and beyond, being bubble wrapped by privilege is not an option.

According to Matthew Martin, Regional Manager of the End Hunger New England project, the amount of hungry people in the United States is currently at a 400 year high. The pandemic has only exacerbated this problem; Martin reported that the pandemic has caused food-insecurity to rise 150% in New England — “I stay awake at night trying to figure out how we can feed that many hungry people”.

In Massachusetts, the $13.5 minimum wage means that to rent a two-bedroom house, you would need to work 111 hours every week, leaving 57 hours for eating, sleeping, commuting, and living. In this system, it is no surprise that obesity has skyrocketed among the poor, who turn to the cheap, filler, nutrient-poor food to feed their hungry families. “That’s not living,” said Martin, “that’s barely surviving.”

In the face of all of this waste, we know that we can’t continue down this path — “We all want our individual freedoms, but this has resulted in an increase of 45 mil hungry people since I was 12, and now I'm 46”. To make the changes we need, programs like End Hunger New England will be vitally important.

In a warehouse in Pembroke, Matthew Martin meets up with volunteers who work in 1-3 hour shifts packaging oats, rice, dried vegetables, and more into nutrient-rich and healthy meals. In the three hours I spent volunteering there over February break, I was amazed at the system’s efficiency. Volunteers work assembly-line style to measure specific quantities of each ingredient so that nothing is wasted and each meal is ready to go for a family in need.

Here’s how it works: Martin waits until he gets $4500 in donations, and then purchases $4500 worth of supplies to make these meal kits. Then, volunteers come in to measure and package up the food, which is then driven by other volunteers to food pantries and homeless shelters across New England, feeding over four million hungry people in 2020!

The amount of food End Hunger New England can distribute is contingent, like so many things in this world, on funding. “The infrastructure is there, and there are 300 times as many food pantries now as in the past. With unlimited money, we could end hunger,” said Martin, “all we need is money to get the product through the funnel.”

That’s where we come in. To fight climate change as to fight hunger, the solution lies not in the extraordinary feats of a few, but in the ordinary actions of the many. According to Martin, all it takes is five cents and five seconds. “If everyday, you put a nickel on your bureau and decided to spend 5 seconds helping out, that would add up to twenty-five minutes and twenty bucks a year.” And, if all 12.5 million people in New England who can look into their fridge and find food there did that, “all of the hungry people in New England get food everyday. Period.”

And there are so many ways to get involved. Donate your time, money, or some hours in the car driving boxes of food to local pantries. In addition to helping end hunger, there are ways to cut down food waste in your personal life to address the root cause of efficient farming.

Firstly, let’s talk leftovers. After volunteering at EHNE, I found a new appreciation for just how important consuming all of your food is; eating those day-old leftovers are a big step towards reducing your waste. Also, think ahead when going food shopping to prevent overshopping and waste of food.

When you are at the market, don’t be fooled by the shiniest apples or the most round oranges. Buy instead the ‘ugly’ produce with the weird knobs and knubs — they've got more character! Or, subscribe to a service like Misfits Market that rescues ugly produce from being waster. And, if you are a fellow banana-lover, buying multiple individual bananas instead of one bunch prevents the orphans from rotting and being thrown out — adopt some lonely produce!

Another great way is to reduce your meat consumption, something Martin calls ‘downshifting’. The reality is, by 2050, if we want the planet to be sustainable for 10 billion people, we can each only consume around one pound of meat per month (the average American currently consumes their body weight in meat).

But change doesn’t have to be huge. “If you are a beef eater, eat pork, if you are a pork eater, eat chicken, if you are a chicken eater, try fish,” said Martin, “or try incorporating meat-free Monday into your life”.

When we think about climate change, we must think about the amount of suffering that will rapidly increase as worsening natural disasters further increase hunger. In the face of such a complex and multifaceted issue, the best defense is looking after our own communities, something Martin has made his life’s work.

“Everyone wants to change the world. But if you look after your neighbors, your town, or your community, actions like that add up to great change.”

When it comes to service, we each should go back for seconds.

The Conscious Clipper is written by Rose Hansen

End Hunger New England never spends any money on advertising, so they need our help to spread the word. Share this link, and sign up to volunteer today!