AVANT GARDENER
The best way to stop food from being wasted is to eat it.
We’ve all been told as children to finish our food because there are people who have nothing to eat. This is a simplified explanation of a complex problem. There are many reasons some people have no access to food. One of them is a gap in the food system. Ironically, food waste is also the problem that plagues this same food system.
In the Philippines, about 40 percent of food is wasted at the source, meaning that around 40 percent of fish caught and vegetables harvested (I don’t have data for livestock and aquaculture) are thrown away before they get to market. Oftentimes, these items are or would still have been edible if only they had been stored properly or had met certain standards. Restaurants and grocery stores likewise produce a lot of food waste to adhere to necessary health regulations, though a lot of the food is still healthy and edible.
“There’s so much food being wasted, and there's still a lot of people hungry… It doesn’t make sense,” said Patricia Rabal, fundraising and partnership manager of Scholars of Sustenance (SOS), an international non-government organization with presences in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines dedicated to eradicating food waste by funneling it to people who can most benefit from it.
“We rescue good quality surplus food so we prevent these food items from ending up in landfills, which eventually emits harmful gasses. At the same time, we can feed people, especially food-insecure communities,” Rabal explained. “We are a data-driven organization, so we measure everything.”
The organization partners with restaurants, hotels, groceries, and food manufacturers by helping them manage their surplus stock. “They’re not at the standard either for selling or for serving in the buffet line, but they’re still at the standard of human consumption,” Rabal said. “One of the things that we assure them is food safety. Our team are all trained in basic food handling.”
Aside from helping organizations with their surplus food, the organization is also able to help collect data such as which items sell well. “It’s a collaboration. It’s not just collecting surplus food.”
The communities that receive the food are vetted. They are visited and the organization makes sure that the communities’ needs match the food SOS can offer.
SOS currently rotates donations among 100 communities mainly in the National Capital Region (NCR) such as Quezon City, and Marikina, as well as in provinces like Pampanga. Because the organization deals with a lot of near-expiry food, speed is of the essence. The communities they serve are generally located near the sources of the surplus food.
“We’re not a food bank. We don’t store food in our headquarters [unless it’s for] the Rescue Kitchen program… so we have to distribute it to the communities at once,” Rabal said. “Ideally, by the end of the day, we’ve already distributed the food that we collected from the day.”
The Rescue Kitchen program involves volunteers cooking donated near-expired food for distribution to partner communities.
This arrangement has enabled SOS to serve 55 million meals worldwide, going past its goal of serving 50 million by 2025. That’s about 13 million kg of food saved. Since SOS’ establishment in the Philippines in 2022, it has saved 710,000 kg of food from the landfill, turning it into three million meals instead.
Preventing food waste on a macro level will need, among others, political will and access to post-harvest preservation machinery such as ice plants, cold storage, and refrigerated trucks. Private citizens can do their share by buying vegetables that look weird but are still fresh (shapes don’t affect a vegetable’s nutritional value) or buy canned goods whose labels (not the cans themselves, where dents may pose a health risk) are not pristine.
SOS is about to enter into a partnership with the San Miguel Foundation to address food waste and food insecurity. “We’re [also] trying to study how to not just collect surplus food from farmers, but to also help them.”
The organization also offers volunteer engagement programs for companies and is set to open this to individuals who want to support SOS. “We also accept sponsorships,” Rabal said. “Our Rescue Kitchen is a sponsorship initiative, so companies sponsor the feeding program. And in December, we have a fundraising activity in partnership with Ballet Philippines.” Proceeds from the Peter Pan ballet on Dec. 8, 2 p.m. show will benefit SOS.
Parties interested in learning more about SOS can find them on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Tiktok under @sosphfoodrescue.
Turning what would have been food waste into nutritious meals for food-insecure communities is one way to prevent wastage, but more action is needed. Aside from starting on an individual level, we have to demand that systems be put in place to keep food from spoiling at the source, which will help raise farmers’ and fishers’ income as well.