Recover
Let's Recover Food Waste!
Many fresh, nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables end up as food waste just because they have a minor blemish that makes them less eye-appealing than their pretty counterparts. The good-looking fruits and vegetables are always chosen first, leaving the blemished Wonky produce ones to sit and languish and ultimately end up in the landfill. As the piles of food waste decompose in the landfills around the country, they release heat-trapping methane gas into the atmosphere.
Given a choice between a perfectly shaped, bright red apple and a misshapen, dull red apple, which one would you pick? In all probability, you would pick the prettiest apple to eat, most of us would. But what happens to the ugly duckling or the Wonky apple? The flavor and nutritional value of these wonky apple are equal to the pretty red apple, it just looks different……
Recovering Wonky Produce
One out of every five fruits and vegetables harvested will end up discarded in the landfill. That translates into one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year – approximately 1.3 billion tons – is wasted at the cost of 680 billion dollars. Finding ways to reduce the food waste before it reaches the landfill is vital to keeping people fed and well-nourished, plus reduce our carbon footprint on the planet. Even recovering a small percentage of the food waste will be helpful. Coming up with innovative ways to market and sell the less attractive fruits and vegetables is needed. As always, the best looking produce will sell first, but second-best tastes as good and should be able to find a good home, perhaps at a reduced price.
At Outside2Inside we recover Wonky Produce by 3 ways:
1. Farm2School Program
2. Farm2Restaurant Program
3. Farm2Work Program
Outside2Inside is trying to reduce food waste by recovering wonky fruits and vegetables that gets discarded. This is done through the above programs, which is helping to provide healthy nutritional food for the people across America. Outside2Inside is partnering with the Bay area Farms to provide new opportunities for local farmers to sell their fresh produce while providing low-cost fresh food to schools, restaurants and corporates. By bringing awareness of food waste and doing something to recover some of that food waste now, Outside2Inside hopes to help prevent a food shortage in the next generation.
O2I Food Recovery Programs
Interested in Conducting these Programs? Request here!
Farm2School Program
Farm2School is a program through which Outside2Inside will be setting up farm tables at local low income schools with Wonky produce sourced from local farms, to educate the school kids about wonky produce recovery. This Farm2School program helps support local farmers, provide affordable nutritional food for school children and their families, plus reduce the amount of food waste that ends up at landfills.
Farm2Restaurant Program
Farm2Restaurant is a program through which Outside2Inside serves Wonky produce to the local bay area restaurants. Through this program we are not only recovering wonky produce but are also connecting local farmers to the local restaurants and help reduce the produce cost for the restaurant. If you are a restaurant owner interested in knowing more about Wonky produce and try it out at your restaurant, please contact us.
Farm2Work
Program
Farm2Work is a program that will host farmers markets at corporate offices where employees can purchase Wonky produce sourced from local farmers and learn about food waste reduction methods and programs carried out by Outside2Inside. It will be an area where employees can have the convenience of doing produce shopping right there at work and help reduce food waste at the same time by buying the Wonky produce .
Sustainability
Helping to keep farmers in the business of growing fresh produce ensures a sustainable lifestyle for us and future generations. The Farm2School program is also an educational resource that may inspire and produce a new crop of young farmers that will take sustainable farming practices and food waste reduction to a whole new level after graduating from school.
Remember, the next time you seen an wonky apple/pear/carrot/tomato/etc. sitting forlornly on the produce shelf, buy it. The environment (and a farmer) will thank you.