Category: 
Which brings me to David Lazarus. David is a business columnist that usually rights op-ed pieces. While T.J. Simers and Bill Dwyre head the sports department, I usually turn to Lazarus when it comes to an op-ed piece in the biz section.
David Lazarus usually opines on relevant topics, but this is often accompanied with his perspective on the topic, and I must admit I’m usually aligned with his take on the topic; whether a liberal or conservative in political slant is hard to tell, but I like to think he straddles the fence like most great political minds (although, isn’t the media always liberal, (-) Fox News of course.
Well, today I find a topic that no one can disagree with, unless that is you are part of the Restaurant Association, and more specifically the caterers. It turns out over 1.5 million tons of food a year gets thrown away by caterers, rather then passed on to those people that are homeless or food-starved, or even just hungry? And the stats on the other side? There are over 1.3 million children going hungry daily — and this is just in California!
The biggest impediment? Logistics (ie. not having the means, transportation and infrastructure, to deliver the throw-aways to hungry people). Otherwise, there does not seem to be another hurdle in this shear waste of perfectly good food – foods that vary from excess wedding functions (guess what, I drank more then I ate!?) to corporate shindigs, to A-list Hollywood parties. Boy, sounds like good eats. The legal constraints? None, zip, nada, etc. Donors are even covered by law for not being responsible for the food in the event it causes any liability to another (ie. spoiled or tainted goods). The thinking being, food banks and homeless shelters can use common judgment to differentiate what’s good from bad–kind of like the salvation army, where everything seems to be used some way in the end.
So….there is all this food, it exempts donors from any legal concerns from the state of the food, and logistics are the problem? In this case, logistics includes the California Restaurant Association, and their state lobbyists for caterers and event planners. I don’t know how they (the CRA) have such pull, but they don’t have to disclose to people the foods can be donated to the needy, so they must have one hell of a lobbyist. One congress women, Jenny Oropeza, has tried to help bridge this gap, but her first bill was previously shot down, as 1.3 million kids go hungry a day (not to mention adults, even if those figures are skewed for whatever reason).
The government’s solution? A new bill which tries to slowly pick away at small changes to the existing failure of a system. One step at a time it seems, although that is the type of gridlock in the system which just exacerbates the problem, not to mention how it is probably getting worse as our economy and unemployment rate continue to languish.
I’m sorry, if people are hungry and excess food can be delivered to those in need, call me up and I’ll drop the rations off myself.
