Future of Food…Waste?
You can’t get inches deep in the pool that is food justice without coming across the issue of food waste. It is becoming a hot topic issue and startups are popping up all over the place with creative solutions to help chip away at this global problem.
In some places of the world up to 40 percent of food is going to waste. 40 percent. Jump to another part of the world and you have entire communities that do not know where their next meal is going to come from. We are along way out from solving these problems of feast and famine because the root of the issue: just distribution and, even more so, access has yet to be solved.
Luckily the company I want to look at today Hello Compost is addressing food waste on a local scale in New York City.
Hello Compost started out when Project Eats, an urban farming nonprofit, wanted to make a more feasible way for urban residents to compost. Project Eats then approached design students Aly Blenkin and Luke Keller. This partnership eventually become a what Hello Compost is today for the most part.
Hello Compost recruited NYC students to design aesthetic bags that can be put in the freezer to reduce food waste odor and that can also be thrown in the laundry machine. The company even brought home an award as Finalist in Fast Company’s 2013 Innovation by Design competition!
Hello Compost weighs the compost brought in and then gives out credits residents can trade in for fruits and vegetables from Project Eats’ urban farms. Giving back fresh local fruits and veggies makes it all worthwhile for families who are to them just trading their “trash” for fresh food. Hello Compost is succeeding because they make things easy for people to compost. Most people don’t want to do anything out of their way so the more convenient something is the more people will participate.
Thankful for projects like Hello Compost that are working with lower income families to solve issues of food waste and food access! It is the local movements that will help change the culture.
And shoutout to The Ground_Up Project for introducing me to Hello Compost.
Till next time Medium machine.
