As resource managers and proponents of Zero Waste, we dedicate significant focus to reducing at the source, finding the highest and best use, and the triple bottom line… ensuring our decisions positively impact people, the environment and the economy. If there’s one thing that embodies these core values, it’s supporting our local food banks, charities or missions to help feed people, create jobs and reduce negative environmental impacts associated with mismanagement of discarded food.

Reducing as much of the some 96 billion pounds of edible food that gets thrown away annually in the U.S. is critical to sustainability, and an easy way to help is to assist the organizations that already have an adequate network and operation established to distribute food, but are limited in the numbers of those they can serve by lack of donations, finances or staffing. Currently one in five Americans are fearful of where their next meal will come from, while at the same time we bury or burn tens of thousands of tons of food everyday with damaging impacts to the environment. A donation of food, time or money to your local food bank is one powerful way to narrow that gap.

March/April 2012 issue of Urban Farm magazine