Over the past few days, I and my group have watched a documentary titled Food Inc. This documentary teaches us about where food comes from and how unhealthy big companies can be. It was so unsettling to learn how bad some food you see at the grocery store is for you. It made me think about people who don’t have enough money to afford the more expensive healthy/organic food. I think that it is crazy how much of the food in our stores is just from one or two companies.

A crazy fact we learned is there is corn in diapers, batteries, and peanut butter. As a country, we need to get better at mass production and food waste. It’s so bad for our environment and is a major cause of the food industry throughout the nation.

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This week I and my group interviewed Abby Diess She works there and is the head of the youth program. She told us about the work they do at God’s Love and how they help make good healthy meals for people who can’t make them for themselves. They work with people who are elderly or sick to make sure they have food and are checked in weekly.

Another point Abby brought up was that you don’t have to be homeless, poor, or in a food desert to be food insecure.Many of Gods Loves customers are food insecure but not for the usual reasons ,they may be too sick to cook for themselves or not able to get food on there own even if they live near a grocery store.Overall God’s Love is really trying to helps those who sometimes go unnoticed in the bigger picture.

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On January 10th Mabel Lucy and I went to a community fridge. The point of a community fridge is to give out healthy food to people who can’t buy it on their own and need a bit of help. Lots of community fridges aren’t fill plus there aren’t many left for people to use if they need too. Most things that you think shouldn’t go into the fridges like chips, homemade food and perishable foods. But what you should put in there are milk, bread, cheese, and healthy foods. Having these fridges can really make a change in others lives.

After going to fill my first community fridges I started to think why don’t other people do this more often. Having these fridges makes a change for others health. As we were filling the fridge there was this person who was waiting very patently for us to finish so that they could all take the food. Once they took the food I could see it put a smile on there face. I never really thought that others getting food could put a smile on their face after receiving a meal.

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On February 5th Lucy Aria and I went to go and meet with Abby at the organization Gods Love We deliver. This organization is a great place. They deliver food to people with any kind of sickness that may make it harder to get food. Some people have things that make it harder to leave their house. Gods Love brings breakfast, lunch, and dinner to these people. If there is a mom or dad who is sick and is unable to leave the house, cook food, or they don’t have access to any Gods Love will deliver to them. The interesting thing is that the children will still not have food, Gods Love delivers to them as well.

All of the food is very healthy. In the summer volunteers grow food outside in a community garden. The food does not have sugar or too much salt so the way it tastes good, is because of the spices. God’s love provides 15,200 meals each weekend. The kitchen takes volunteers year round. Everybody in the kitchen is very nice and does incredible work everyday. We got to meet with the kitchen manager that showed us around. The oven, mixers, and freezers are huge because they store so much food.

We had an interview with Abby Diess. She talked about the relationships with the people they bring food to. A lot of the people look forward to seeing the driver every day. God’s love has build a very big community with everybody they help. Abby said that there are so many stories about how This organization has changed peoples life.

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Mabel Lucy and I set up an interview with our head Chef Eric. Eric was talking a lot about how much food waste there is during lunch. he was talking a lot about how kids would put a lots of food on there plates when they wouldn’t even finish it after lunch is over. Having all of that food go to waste is really bad because the food that kids didn’t eat should go to people who need it much more than them. Most of this food waste is coming from our salad bar. kids would be talking more than what they can even eat and then waste it. people should just remember to take what you can eat.

something that I was really surprised about was how much food is being wasted every day at our school. after having this interview with Chef Eric I realized how much food I was putting on my plate at lunch. during our lunch time I noticed kids putting mountains of food on their plates and then watching them throw it all out without even making a dent in it. that just really breaks my heart because that food that they didn’t eat could have gone to someone who needs that food more.

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On Jan 10th my group went to fill a community fridge near the school. It was a long walk but it was worth it. We left at 9:30 and got back at 12 so it was a long trek. The closest community fridge is a 30-minute walk from the school. There used to be more in the area but a lot of fridges have been closing down. I am not quite sure why this is but it may be due to funding or not enough donations. Donating to fridges is very important because many New Yorkers don’t have food and depend on fridges and organizations for their meals. This fridge helps cater to the homeless of the area as well as people who don’t have healthy food to eat.

I think it’s important for people to think about what they could do to help others who are having a hard time. Perhaps if you have extra food from a party you could take it to your local food bank volunteer at a shelter or help with a canned food drive. There are many things anyone can do to try to help. It comes down to the fact that not nearly enough people know about food insecurity as a major issue.

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On Jan 10th my group went to fill a community fridge near the school. It was a long walk but it was worth it. We left at 9:30 and got back at 12 so it was a long trek. The closest community fridge is a 30-minute walk from the school. There used to be more in the area but a lot of fridges have been closing down. I am not quite sure why this is but it may be due to funding or not enough donations. Donating to fridges is very important because many New Yorkers don’t have food and depend on fridges and organizations for their meals. This fridge helps cater to the homeless of the area as well as people who don’t have healthy food to eat.

I think that it’s important for people to think about what they could do to help others who are having a hard time. Perhaps if you have extra food from a party you could take it to your local food bank or volunteer at a shelter or help with a canned food drive.There is many things anyone can do to to try to help.It really comes down to the fact that not nearly enough people know about food insecurity as such a major issue.

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On January 14th, we sat down with Chef Eric, the head chef at LREI, to discuss our lunch system. Every day, the amazing chefs in the cafeteria prepare lunch for us, and we were curious about what happens to any leftover food. Eric explained that most of the food is either reused in dishes for other days or given to the after-school kids. He also shared that food is only thrown away if it’s either leftover and not finished by students or if it becomes contaminated. We also asked about the possibility of donating some of the leftover food to a community fridge or organization. Eric mentioned that while attempts have been made in the past, they weren’t successful because food-help organizations typically require specific amounts and types of food.
From this interview, we learned a lot about how the kitchen at LREI operates. One thing that stood out to me was how small the school is—I had expected there to be more food waste, but it turns out the kitchen team does an excellent job of preparing just the right amount of food for everyone. Although I’m not quite ready to donate food to an organization just yet, I believe it should definitely be a long-term goal for the school. With careful planning and more partnerships with local food banks or community fridges, there’s potential to make an even greater impact in the future.

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On January 14th we had the opportunity to interview Eric Baer, the head chef at LREI. We learned a lot about food waste at school. A lot of the food waste was food from people that had been opened, put on plates, but just not finished. Eric said “It is good to try new things but it’s also good to take food in small portions. You can always get more.” Eric also mentioned that there were many attempts in the past to reduce food waste, but there were many problems that he faced in doing so. There are many great organizations that will drive to you school or restaurant and take leftover food. This is usually free but to get somebody to come you would have to have a certain about of leftover food which LREI does not have.

Something that I was really surprised about was that most of the food waste at our school comes from the salad bar. If things in the salad bar stayed separate, like the yogurt did not touch the fruit, then it would be reused for the next day. The reason there is little to no food waste after each day is because the kitchen staff do a great job preparing and knowing how much food to make each day. They make more popular food and less of the food that is eaten less. Even though we learned that it is really hard to manage the waste in a good way, we hope to find efficient ways of reducing LREI’s food waste in the future.

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This museum was very interesting and I learned a lot. At the beginning of the tour there were lots of paintings on the walls. They were paintings of people but the interesting thing about them was that they had quotes in the art. There were things that read “We belong here” and “We too are american” I thought they were beautiful and I learned they were a form of activism. we also learned a lot about trans rights and trans activism. I thought it was really powerful how the movement started and how this community formed. There were many gay activist and people that supported the LGBTQ rights, but in the beginning a lot of trans people were left out of this. I also learned about women’s rights and how a lot of people expected women to just cook and clean and raise a family. It was really nice to see how women supported each other for equal rights. We also learned a little bit more about disability rights and how much better things have gotten. Buses and subways have both gotten much more accessible, especially for people in wheelchairs.

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My group watched a documentary called Food Inc. This was all about processed food, how animals live, and food waste. In this movie we learned a lot. Animals are treated so much worse than we could imagine, People do everything that they can to profit the most of all of the animals. By doing this the animals have terrible living conditions but also the food that seems organic and good for you is really not. People usually go for the organic or less expensive brands of meat, but the brands that are less expensive are usually not good for your health. Food insecurity is not just access to food but to access to healthy food. When we watched this we learned just how hard finding good food can be. When you look in the supermarket you will see many different kinds of food but in reality they all trace back to three main places. Those three main places are big brands that sell unhealthy processed meats.

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On Friday, Lucy, Aria, and I went to fill a community fridge on 6th street. We bought healthy food before the trip, including fruits, vegetables, and other good food that might be hard to find or too expensive to buy. The fridge was small and completely empty when we got there. This was very upsetting because there are lots of people that would benefit if that fridge had food in it. When we were filling the fridge, there was already someone to take some of the food. I learned that a lot of the time the fridges get shut down and relocated. It is really hard to not only keep a fridge open but also fully stocked. Most of the time the fridges are empty because people don’t usually consistently fill the fridge.

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