I enjoyed attending a luncheon at Lauritzen Gardens mid December. The space was beautifully decorated with all sorts of festive ribbons, poinsettias and even the people were decorated in holiday clothes. It was a sweet time of fun fellowship.

As we were walking out, I noticed an entire table that still had 12 untouched desserts on it. Then, I thought about our table. I bet 6 of us never touched our desserts…or bread….or wine. What was going to happen to all of this food?

I ran into someone I’d just met at a meeting the day before, Polina. I told her about the desserts and she mentioned the name of the caterer. I called the caterer when I returned home and they assured me that any food that was salvageable was sent to a mission or homeless shelter. When I questioned how much of the food was shared, she explained the details on food that can be shared with others.

I knew that all of those desserts landed in a trash can.

Then I called Saving Grace, a Food Rescue organization in Omaha and spoke with Judy. I’ve chatted with her before about rescuing food as one of her trucks delivers to No More Empty Pots once a week. We discussed barriers to food rescue and how it can be done more effectively. I told Judy about our desire to incorporate specially-abled adults into a nutrition/food prep roles at our Food Hub. There is a group in Pittsburg, 412 Food Rescue who created a group of restaurants/food productions sites, with organizations who can use the food and inserted others willing to pick up and deliver the food. Why couldn’t our specially-abled adults help out with that? Why couldn’t Gabe and his friends walk around that banquet room and take untouched food and plop it in a foil pan to transport it to someone who is hungry? And why couldn’t we just be a branch of the Pittsburg group and call ourselves, 402 Food Rescue?

Why not?