On Sunday, November 20, we are participating in a “Food Waste Weekend.” Throughout this fall, thousands of other houses of worship – churches, mosques, synagogues, temples – throughout the country have partnered to bring awareness to the issue of wasted food, which is when food gets thrown away before it is consumed. This can be food anywhere – at a party, on the farm, at lunch, at your wedding, at the supermarket, even here at our own church.

The highest purpose of food is for feeding people, and we want to bring awareness back to what all of our grandmothers used to say: ‘don’t throw away good food!’ We don’t want food to be wasted when there are hungry people in our community and nation. In the USA, 1 out of 6 people will experience hunger and food insecurity at some point this year.

On November 20, we will look at the issue of food waste in our Sunday morning adult education and worship services. Our Green Team will be working with our various church programs to consider ways that we can limit our food waste here at church. Please talk with our Green Team or go to www.foodwasteweekend.org to learn more about the issue and how you can help.

The NY Times recently had an entire section devoted to food waste. In addition to suggesting ways to reduce food waste in our own homes, it included ideas about changing laws to reduce food waste (in part through more accurate and helpful ‘use by’ dates), and better connecting hungry people to retailers with perishable items. To learn more, go to http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/09/21/keeping-food-on-the-plate-and-out-of-landfills.

We are also holding a vegetarian potluck brunch the same day, following the 10:45 service. Why not use the opportunity to practice some of these “minimizing waste” ideas!