Redirecting wasted food to the needy through initiatives could usher in a change
Feeding India’s initiative ‘Meals with love’, designed especially for weddings, has helped feed about two million people till date. Credit: Feeding India “India hosts approximately 2.5 crore weddings every year and currently we are in the peak wedding season (November to February),” says Srishti Jain co-founder of Feeding India, a non-profit that collects food from donors and distributes it at their centres in more than 45 cities.
Since weddings have become a platform to display the social status, people spend lavishly on grand weddings, and as a result, a lot of food ends up wasted. "Approximately 10-15 per cent of the food is wasted, with a minimum of around 30-50 kg and maximum going up to 800 kg. This can be used to serve around 100-200 people on an average, and a maximum of 2,000-4,000 people,” says jain.
The Supreme Court has been contemplating on ways to reduce the food and water wastage during weddings. It has recommended restricting the number of guests to reduce the wastage. “This will not make a big difference,” says Jain.
Redirecting the unserved or wasted food to the needy through such initiatives could usher in a change. Feeding India’s initiative ‘Meals with love’, designed especially for weddings, has helped feed about two million people till date.
They are also picking up food from comic and actor Kapil Sharma’s wedding on December 12, 2018. “If Supreme Court’s suggestions are implemented, people could feel that their choices are being curbed. But, a sustainable and smart decision would be to divert the food to the needy,” Jain adds.
Media reports state that at weddings, a vast variety of dishes are served and it is beyond the per person eating capacity, which in turn leads to food wastage.
This is just the scenario at Indian weddings. Since there are no concrete statistics on the food wastage from homes and hotels, there is a need to address the wastage from these sources as well. One prominent and growing solution to this problem is the community fridge, being used in urban cities.
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