One anonymous restaurant worker had Reddit buzzing in the best way possible after sharing the fate of hundreds of pounds of food.
In the subreddit r/HumansBeingBros, the worker posted a photo of a prep area stacked with repackaged veggies, as well as a variety of hearty-looking dishes destined for people's stomachs.
"Here's what 325.67 lbs. of recovered food waste looks like. Instead of a dumpster, this food will create almost 300 meals for the homeless," they wrote in a post from five years ago, sparking a flurry of supportive comments and praise.
🗣️ Should grocery stores be allowed to throw away food that is still OK to eat?
🔘 YES 👍
🔘 NO 👎
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
"This is awesome!" one person wrote.
"Kudos to you for making a difference," another person said.
This particular type of happy ending is not an outlier. Kroger and Trader Joe's, for example, both recently gave away large amounts of food to prevent items from spoiling during refrigeration outages, while some restaurants have begun composting programs for otherwise unsalvageable scraps.
Nonetheless, discarded food is a significant issue. According to Feeding America, around one-third of it goes to waste in the United States as millions go hungry, while NPR noted restaurants alone account for 15% of all food that ends up rotting in landfills.
That waste then produces methane, a planet-warming gas that is potentially 28 times stronger than carbon dioxide.
Some Redditors weren't shy about discussing their own cringe-inducing tales of food waste, but others were more encouraging or shared tips on how to minimize the issue.
"I throw out a lot of food at my work, and the majority of it is perfectly good to eat. Lots of it has to do with bad packaging and people not wanting to buy it if it has the slightest blemish," one Redditor shared.
"I try my best when cooking to use everything for this very reason," someone else wrote.
"Amazing work, good job. I hope this really catches on," a third commenter said.
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