Food security is a massive and daunting issue in Seattle and many cities, as many communities are lower income and the standard of living is extremely high. Through our action group, we were hoping to open up an avenue to encourage less waste and more food security in our city. We wanted to create a town hall event that combined a dinner that we served through a catering company with an open dialogue that connected food sustainability with security. We were also trying open up a conversation with the residents of tent cities about their experiences with hunger as well as access to food, and explore what the city of Seattle could improve upon in our food system. As it turns out, this is easier said than done, as many of the catering companies we contacted were hesitant to donate food due to questions of legality and reusing food. Herein lies the stigma of food security and the donation of food to the homeless, as it is perfectly legal to donate already served food within a certain amount of time.
The main argument for reusing this excess food is that using up resources by buying more than we need in turn makes prices increase, then hurts lower income communities even more because they cant buy more expensive healthy food. As a result, we turned the corner of our project to a more educational route, as we created an informational brochure that stressed the legalities of donating food in the cities and the stigmas that surround it. Looking back on this project, I really do believe our group could have put on an excellent town hall event with the attendance of local leaders had we had more time to prepare. The most hopeful and uplifting part of this experience however was that each of my group members produced creative solutions to any difficulties we faced, and were we to engage in a similar cause again, I believe every one of us now has the skills to organize and develop an event to help solve and bring awareness to the seemingly endless problem of food waste in Seattle.
