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Reducing Food Waste: Feeding Our People, Our Planet, and Our Pockets

Student(s):

Yvonne Chang

Program or Department(s):

  • Program on the Environment
  • University of Washington

Site supervisor(s):

Viccy Salazar

Partner(s):

  • United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10

Faculty advisor(s):

Kristi Straus, Program of the Environment, University of Washington

During my internship, I worked on researching and implementing food recovery programs in our community. I reviewed scholarly literature, and attended meetings regarding school food recovery at the EPA. We produce enough food to feed the nation, yet a third of the food is wasted and there are still millions of food-insecure citizens. When the food gets wasted, not only does it contribute to carbon emissions in the landfill, we are also wasting the resources it took to produce the food. By implementing different strategies to reduce our food waste, we can save resources, benefit the environment, and save money.