So today I was in the engineering canteen, Techno Edge, and I happened to come across these food bins (in which I discreetly took a photo of :p)
Which reaaaally caught my attention because I have never seen one before. Or maybe I just wasn't paying attention to the problem of food wastage before this.......
(Side note: I found out they have 6 food "banks" where you can drop off the food. And 1 of it is in NUS! How convenient for us!!)
And hence I learnt about Food Bank .Singapore - an organisation which collects unwanted, unused excess food from people, and then distributing these food to the poor or the needy. Their aim of this organisation is not just to provide a helping hand to the less fortunate in Singapore, but also in raising awareness of the problem of food wastage. In Singapore, food is the 2nd highest type of waste!!! This alarming results has thus led to the set-up of this charity organization.
In the past, they have had events such as Project X-pired, FoodLanthrophy and Food ReXycling Day. They have an upcoming Project X-pired II coming soon in October! Art pieces made from food waste (e.g expired food) will be used to make art pieces :-) Head over to the website to find out more about their events if you're interested yeah!
Food banks have been around since 1967, including the world's first - St Mary's Food Bank Alliance in Arizona! Seems like one of the ways to mitigate the problems of food wastage lies with us - in preventing food from ending up wasted in the bins in the first place. Just got to take note of the expiry dates on our food!
References:
NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT AGENCY. (n.d) Waste statistics and overall recycling. [Online] Available from: http://www.nea.gov.sg/energy-waste/waste-management/waste-statistics-and-overall-recycling [Accessed: 30/9/2015]
PRISCILLA GOY. (2015) Don't throw away cny goodies, donate them. [Online] 5 March 2015. Available from: http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/dont-throw-away-cny-goodies-donate-them [Accessed: 30/9/2015]
This concept is really interesting and I didn't notice that there are such food bins at Techno Edge too oops! I shall try to spot it the next time i go Techno Edge. I believe that not many people knows about Food Bank.Singapore too and maybe more can be done for Singaporeans to realise about how much food we are wasting. Thus, taking action to donate excess food to others who needs it more and at the same time, only buying the amount that we can finish. Similarly in NUS, I think not many of us are aware of these food bins and the issue at large. Maybe we can consider future plans that can help us to salvage this situation in NUS and at a larger scale, in Singapore?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I had a great time reading your blog and I look forward to your next post! Keep it up (: