No Waste, No Hunger is an experimental program intending to encourage local professionals and businesses to provide a little bit of support to local food providers serving the homeless, low income, and elderly. If just 30 professionals or business owners dropped a little spare food once a month, agencies can provide more and healthier food, and dedicate money resources to other needs like supporting recovery from addiction and domestic violence.
Local agencies rely on donations of food and supplies, and are generally able to take anything, including food up to a year past it’s best use date, a single can of soup, extra bulk food like a half bag of flour, a loaf of bread from a 2-pack, some eggs or a few bottles of water from a 24 pack. Donating A jar of green olives from a Costco 2-pack gives the kindness of a special treat that many of us take for granted.
The need for help is high. In Port Angeles, agencies like TAFY serve 50 or more dinners 4 days a week, serving people who are homeless or low income. Many have been devastated by job loss, medical problems, or have been an addict and are now starting the process of getting their lives back together with an extremely stressed financial situation. Serenity House serves dinner to 50+ people every night, and breakfast on weekends.
Other providers include the Salvation Army, Port Angeles Senior and Community Center, the Shipley Center in Sequim, The Answer 4 Youth (TAFY), and food banks in Port Angeles, Sequim, Clallam Bay, Chimacum, and Quilcene.
The 2020 food stamp restrictions only add to the problem of increasing hunger in America.
In addition, food waste is a huge problem in terms of global warming. Ranging from food that can’t be harvested or taken off the farm, to unused food in homes, composting food waste is the third largest contributing factor to the introduction of methane gas into the environment.
To learn more, and find local agencies who you can support, see the No Waste, No Hunger page at ClallamCountyBar.com. It’s easy to drop of a few cans or a small bag of food. Please consider adopting an agency.