SavetheFood.com and Ron Sider

I was riding down  I-85 and a billboard catches my eye stating that forty percent of food in America is wasted, and I know immediately that I am guilty.

So I went to http://www.savethefood.com/.  This website has lots of helpful shopping and storing information.   They share a few powerful statistics but lots of solutions. It’s perfect for people like me who thumbed their nose  on home economics classes to pursue more practical pursuits like academia. I confess that lack basic shopping and food preparation skills.  This website has some practical help on shop ping and meal planning. There is lots of information on storing food.

 

So I am making a resolution and going public with it to quick throwing food away.  This means getting better at shopping, food preparation and storing food.

I confess that  I am a terrible grocery shopper.  I tend to shop while I’m out and throw random objects into the cart.  Planning ahead has never been my specialty.  To top that off, I  am way too optimistic about how much I am actually going to cook. I am also lazy. It’s time to admit to myself that I am unlikely to take the time to cut up a cantelope or a pineapple.  It’s easier just to buy it cut up.

Summer is a particular challenge. I crave fresh fruits and vegetables and some stores make them look so good especially the Harris Teeter and Publix.  I am crazy about the Ingles salad bar.

This practical website has greater implications for me than saving a few bucks at the grocery store.   Christianity, at its best, is radical.  It shakes our world.  As Americans most of us know that we live much better than 90 to 95% of the world.  My friend, Dwight Mangum, has said that he needs to visit a third world country on a regular basis just to keep life in perspective. At the time, we were both part of a missions trip to the Philippines.

I think SavetheFood.com is a great place to start. This site is not about guilt, it’s about practical solutions.  For me, being a global Christian begin with curbing waste.

An excellent book on the church and the world hunger situation is Ron Sider’s Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger:   Moving from Affluence to Generosity..  I  first read this book in my twenties and it’s still in print. Ron Sider is the president of Evangelicals for Social Action.  He last updated this book in 2005.He has written many others

While  He acknowledges that issues of world hunger are complicated,  He offers practical solutions for us today.