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BuurtBuik

As food makes its way from farm to table, some of it is wasted at every step. Producers, wholesalers, packagers, shippers, vendors, restaurant owners, and consumers all account for some share of the 1.3 billion tons of food wasted every year. The water, land, and energy used to grow, package, and ship that food is also wasted, to say nothing of the 3.3 billion tons of CO2 that is needlessly dumped into our atmosphere. That this occurs when nearly 800 million people around the world suffer from chronic malnourishment is unconscionable.

These problems are global in scale, but one group of Dutch volunteers decided to address them locally. The group they founded, BuurtBuik, collects excess food from farmers, supermarkets, and restaurants and then uses it to prepare wholesome meals in their own kitchen. Anyone from the local community is welcome to join in the cooking, dine together with their neighbors, or simply take the food home to enjoy.

BuurtBuik was inspired by the Re-food movement in Portugal, and similar groups exist all over the world, including Taiwan. Taiwan has received much international attention for its food scrap recycling programs, but there is still much more to be done. The Taiwan People’s Food Bank Association estimates that 2.75 million tons of food goes to waste in Taiwan each year. Certainly some of that could benefit the 350,000 people who experience hunger here. And unlike Taiwan’s more “entrepreneurial efforts” at reducing food waste, volunteer organizations like BuurtBuik and the Taiwan People’s Food Bank follow international standards for safety and cleanliness.