Wasted Food in Businesses Should Be Donated - But Logistics Challenges the Common Good

One thing our think tank routinely discusses is how to solve the problems with starvation and hunger. In the US we have it pretty good, very rarely does anyone in our 300 million plus population die from starvation, I'd say that's a good thing. In the rest of the world, things are not so good, thus, such tragedies are all too common. Perhaps, when you were young your mother told you to eat all the food on your plate because there were people starving in Africa, China, India, or whatever nation she mentioned, well, that was true then, and it's still true today. Okay so let's talk.

It is my sincere belief that there is no food shortages in the world for human consumption, rather there is a distribution problem, and the same is true in the US with companies wasting food at the end of the day. Not long ago, I was reminded of this by a college student who wants to start a food drive, she stated that only;

"10% of food businesses donate their unsold food items at the end of the day to local food banks and homeless shelters."

That's not good you say - No that isn't good is it - especially for a major city in the US, and a nation of abundance.

Right so we have a distribution problem! And we are mismanaging our resources, while everyone runs around asking the government to fix the problem, so they want to raise taxes, which will make it worse. You see, there are more than enough people willing to volunteer, but we keep punishing those who help.

If a business donates food, and someone gets sick, some lawyer will sue, but we keep demanding more laws and regulations. Then a common sense solution like this comes along (pick up the food not used and deliver it to the local charity) and needs to battle the red-tape, and convince small and large businesses to give again - but they've been burned so many times, and folks don't even understand why these volunteers and businesses are less than interested in helping anymore.

How do you suppose I know about such things? Simple, I've been using my company to help the common good for decades, prior to retirement, and it is amazing what you have to go through just to help people, it's really a shame, then when the government tries, it just wastes more money, raises taxes, and the whole problem is unchanged for the most part. Please consider all this.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative eBook on Community Fundraising. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net

How to Recycle Food Waste

Those familiar with basic home composting techniques know that egg shells, coffee grounds, vegetables, fruits, grains, leaves and grass clippings are all compostable. But we are also told to avoid putting meat, dairy, fats and bones into our home composting bins. Particularly at this time of year many of us are left with exactly these types of remains from the holiday feast...and lots of them! So how do we recycle food scraps that are animal, rather than plant-based?

Why recycle food waste?

Before we get into the discussion of how to recycle food waste, it might be best to start with why we would want to do this in the first place. After all, food waste is biodegradable, so what's the problem with just putting it in the garbage and letting it decompose at the landfill?

Many of you may be familiar with recent concerns over methane emissions and their contributions to global warming. Methane gas is a by-product of organic decomposition in an oxygen-free environment...i.e. the landfill...and its effect on global warming as a greenhouse gas is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide, which is most commonly referred to in GHG discussions. Food waste makes up about 30% of household garbage. Worldwide methane emissions from garbage are estimated at 70 million metric tons annually. By diverting organic waste from the landfill we can significantly decrease, if not eliminate, landfill methane emissions.

How to recycle food waste

So now that we've determined that recycling food waste is important, how do we do it? The advice to exclude meat, bones, fat and dairy from your home composting bin stems from the liklihood that it will draw pests, not that these materials cannot be composted. For this reason most people opt to use a commercial composting facility to recycle their food waste.

If you opt for recycling food scraps at home, there are a couple of considerations to take into account.

To limit the pest factor you should use a composter that is fully enclosed with a locking lid. Most pests such as raccoons and rats will be thwarted in their efforts to steal your scraps. A larger animal such as a bear, however, could probably unseat the bin from it's ground pins and make a mess of your compost pile. If you live in an area where bears are common you will need a much sturdier built-in enclosure, or go the commercial composting route.

Vermicomposting, or composting with worms, may be another option. Vermicomposting is clean, despite what you might think. The worms consume the food scraps leaving nothing to decay and create odors. The result is very high quality compost to use as an additive to your garden and plant soils. Vermicomposting bins can be kept right in the kitchen and chances are no one will ever know it's there unless you tell them.

There are also microbial products you can add to your compost bin to speed up the composting process and to assist with the breakdown of these non-plant wastes.

Food waste recycling in municipal recycling programs

So far food waste recycling hasn't caught on with most municipal recycling programs. Less than 3% of food waste is recycled in the U.S. Among the local programs participating in food waste recycling are:


SanFrancisco, CA
Tacoma, WA
Portland, OR
Minneapolis, MN
Boulder, CO
Bellevue, WA
King County, WA
Alameda County, CA

Charitable Contributions

Depending on the area where you live you may be able to donate leftovers to a local food bank, shelter or other cooperative. One such program is the d.c. central kitchen which collects those leftovers and converts them to "meals for the hungry and at-risk" persons in the local community. In 2009 d.c. central kitchen was able to distribute1.76 million meals in the D.C. metropolitan area. Check your local outreach programs to see if similar options are available in your area.

For more information on composting and food recycling, visit http://www.tipsforrecycling.com.

Erica Balk publishes the informational blog Tips for Recycling. She is an MPA with over a decade of experience in the solid waste and recycling field. Visit http://www.tipsforrecycling.com for ways you can recycle at home, recycling games for kids, current news in the recycling field, and information for professionals looking to increase participation in their recycling programs.

Food Gift Baskets - Say I Love You With a Unique Gourmet Food Basket

Do you love food? Have you ever given food as a gift?

I'm not talking about canned goods that you donate to your local food bank, although that's a grand and heartfelt gesture.

I'm talking about shopping online for a spectacular gourmet food basket that you can buy and have shipped to someone you love and care about.

On a recent online shopping trip, I found the following types of gourmet food gift baskets:

Breakfast: Contains pancake mix and fruit syrup, a mini jar of hazelnut coffee jelly, individual apple cinnamon coffee cake, lemon tea cookies and breakfast tea. Some companies included a terry towel and measuring spoons.

Chocolate: Contains an assortment of chocolate dipped pecans, handmade caramel twists, chocolate toffee almonds, white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, chocolate drizzled popcorn, yogurt pretzels, chocolate dipped pretzels and chocolate dipped cherries. Now tell me, who wouldn't want to receive this gift basket? Yum.

Italian: Contains imported pasta, classic marinara sauce, breadsticks, sun dried tomato bruschetta, and Pasta e Fagiolo soup. Some companies also provide an assortment of Italian cookies and even a stainless steel pasta scoop, potholder and kitchen towel. Wow! How do I get one of my friends to send me this?

Gourmet: These types of gift baskets include gourmet treats that you normally would only be able to purchase from a specialty store. For example, here's a brief list of some goodies that are available in this category: dips, spreads, sweets and snacks; roasted red pepper jam and artichoke Parmesan spread, wine flavored cheese tin with four cheese triangles, gourmet pasta and garlic infused olive oil, Napa Valley balsamic vinegar, roasted garlic mustard, biscottis, cheese sticks, crackers and white pistachio nuts. Some companies also included a glass cheese board and knife.

Is that special person in your life worthy of a more personalized gift than flowers or candy? Celebrate how much you care about someone by selecting a beautiful gourmet food gift basket from http://www.bedfordbasket.com that says I love you.

How to Reduce Waste and Cost in The US Free-Food Stamp Program

Currently, there are 44 million people on food stamps, which is quite excessive. Early indications and research indicate the fraud rate is about 35%. We also know that everything the Federal Government does, they spend about 45% of the social program expenditures on the administration of the program. Now then, I suppose there are NO Americans that are in the situation that Somalians are in right now, after all, you could always go through the trash at a local Kentucky Fried Chicken and prevent starvation.

Okay so, before you criticize that last comment consider the abundance in our society, and the incredible job that folks are doing in the communities with food bank programs, and the incredible donations from Walmart and miscellaneous local companies. Now then, you are asking; "What's my plan?" Yes, well, I always have one of those don't I, so let's talk about this.

First, we need to rate the "actual" needs on a scale of 1-10 of each recipient of food stamps, then we need to take those scores and put them onto a bell graph and knock out the least needy one-third. Basically, no more food stamps, second we need to keep a total of what's been given out, and let people know that it's a loan, that has to be paid back or it comes out of their social security benefits in the future, plus a low interest rate.

The reality is that Food Stamps are the epitome and standard case of "giving a man a fish, rather than doing what's prudent; teaching him to fish, and letting him take care of himself," but for some reason our socialist government assumes that people are weak, and thus, they are making them weaker by buying all of their food, rather than telling them to get a job.

Simultaneously, our government is making it almost impossible for small businesses to hire anyone due to employment regulations, withholding, health care insurance requirements, and let's not forget the outside influences of lawsuits, and labor unions which the government has favored over the small businesses risking their life savings and capital to start the company in the first place.

These social programs and free-food via food stamps are a case in point. We are making people weak, making America weak, and hurting our economic vitality while depleting our treasury. Indeed, I hope you will please consider how serious this issue really is and think on it.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes writing 24,444 articles by September 4th at 4:44 PM will be difficult because all the letters on his keyboard are now worn off now..

Can I Store Some McDonald's in My Food Storage?

Some families live on farms, with chicken coops and cows and root cellars and gardens the size of city blocks. At the other end of the scale, you'll find some families who live in apartments in cities. The closest they come to farm life is keeping a canary in a birdcage. The only thing they make for dinner...is a reservation. A home-cooked meal means reheating last night's Chinese take-out leftovers.

The rest of us fall somewhere in between.

So what do you do about food storage if you eat most of your meals in restaurants or you prefer to stop by the deli or corner grocery store on your way home from work every night?

Not to worry. You are not doomed to be an emergency preparedness statistic if you don't know how to bake a loaf of bread or have a basement full of food. You will, however, have to put a little more thought into being prepared than someone who is used to cooking from scratch or on a regular basis.

Remember that if the power does go out, the local deli or nearest take-out restaurant will most likely have no power either. Or if you are out of work for several months, just showing up at the nearest McDonald's with a smile will probably not result in a free meal.

So here's how you get started:

Decide on several recipes that are easy for you to fix and that you and your family are willing to eat. Choose two breakfast meals, two lunch meals, and two dinner meals. Keep them simple. Then, stock up on all the ingredients it takes to make each of them seven times. Once you have all the ingredients, you will have a food storage plan for two weeks!

For example: You might choose oatmeal and pancakes for your two breakfast meals, soup and tuna salad with canned fruit as your lunch meals. Dinner might be spaghetti with canned corn for one meal and homemade pizza for the second. (Yes, there is such a thing as "homemade" pizza - and it's easy.)

Now write down what ingredients you need for each meal.

Breakfast One: Oatmeal - oats, milk (dry or evaporated), sugar, cinnamon, salt.

Breakfast Two: Pancakes - pancake mix, or flour, baking powder, etc.), jam or syrup (or ingredients to make syrup).

Lunch One: Soup and canned fruit - soup (canned or dry mix), canned fruit.

Lunch Two: Tuna Salad and crackers - tuna, pickles, mayonnaise, crackers.

Dinner One: Spaghetti - pasta, spaghetti sauce (or ingredients to make sauce, or just canned spaghetti), hamburger (if you have a freezer), canned corn as side dish.

Dinner Two: Pizza - packaged pizza mix (or flour, baking powder, etc.), can of pizza sauce, pepperoni, can of mushrooms, pineapple, or whatever you like on pizza.


You might also want to have some ingredients, mixes or packaged treats on hand. Old-fashioned non-microwave popcorn stores well and is a good option.

Repeat the Process

When you have stashed away all of the ingredients for these meals, choose two more each of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. Repeat this process until you feel satisfied that you'll be able to take care of yourself and your family for a while. If you follow this process, you can at least be somewhat prepared in an emergency, even if you have no intention of changing your current lifestyle.

What if I never cook that food? It will go to waste.

Here's my suggestion: Put away all the food according to this plan. Then, in a year or so (while the food is still good!), donate it all to a homeless shelter or food bank and buy new for your preparedness program.

Don't give it all away all at once - and don't buy many week's worth all at once. Stagger your buying, then stagger your donating. That way you'll always have some food storage and it won't spoil keeping it too long.

The key, however, is to use a Magic Marker, or something similar to put dates on your cans and packages. There will be no question about when to rotate if you follow this simple procedure.

Besides, it's not really a waste if you've gotten a year's peace of mind, and in turn, donated it to someone in need. That's a good investment.

Joan Crain is a "food storage enthusiast" who has experienced using food storage to survive. Your family's survival in any emergency is important too. There is always a way to squeeze a little extra out of your budget for your storage. Visit Family Survival Planning and find a food storage method that will work for you!

Urban Survival, Economic Collapse and Foraging for Food

With unemployment at a sustained high, the economy in tatters and both the national debt and deficit out of control, more people in the US are feeling insecure about putting food on the table. There is also a growing number of people who call themselves "Preppers" that are storing food and supplies in case our economy collapses and we see hyperinflation and a situation worse than the Great Depression. How will they feed their families? What makes so many people worried is that they don't know much about growing food or preserving or canning or anything beyond going to the grocery store. As a result, Urban Survival skills are becoming more important to more people.

Although more people live in suburbia today than live in an actual "urban" environment, for the purposes of this discussion, "urban survival" refers to anything happening in any size city or suburb that is not rural. These are the population centers where hundreds of millions of people could go hungry if there is any kind of a collapse.

If the store shelves are empty, or your pockets are empty, it doesn't really matter - you and your family face hunger. While there is the possibility in an extreme situation that food banks may still operate, nobody wants to be in a position where their life depends on the charity of others. So how do you put food on the table?

Urban Food Sources

Retention ponds are a gold mine of food. First off, there are almost always ducks or geese there, which can be an instant source of a good meal. While many of the geese are protected by wildlife laws, if there is a breakdown in society, that will matter little compared to feeding your family. The great thing about these fowl is that they are easy to catch. Soaking corn or grain in alcohol and feeding it to them will make them drunk and sluggish and easy to catch, in case post-collapse pursuit of the birds becomes more common and they are easily scared. In other urban environments, there are pigeons as well, which can be caught just as easily.

In addition to fowl, retention ponds offer cattails, which are a very good source of food year round, and not very well known. In the spring, the tender green shoots of cattails can be pulled up and eaten just like thin cucumbers. Later in the year the heads sprout pollen, which can be collected and used as flour. Year round, the roots of the cattails can be collected and processed to make a very nutrient dense flour as well.

Trees bearing fruits and nuts abound in parks and forest preserves, if you know how to identify them. Oak trees drop acorns that can be gathered and processed to make acorn flour, and even crabapple trees that have tiny fruit that is bitter when eaten raw can be used to make jelly that tastes great and provides vital nutrients.

Hunting small game in an urban environment is not recommended, but rabbits and squirrels can easily be trapped using improved snares once you learn how.

Skills To Develop

All of the food sources listed above are plentiful and, at least in the beginning stages after an economic collapse or societal breakdown, they will not be highly sought after. Thus, competition will be sparse and it will be easier for you to forage and ensure your family survives. Developing these urban survival skills is not difficult, as all can be found demonstrated quite well on YouTube, though it requires an investment of time. For families with children, this is a great way to learn more about the environment and a great excuse to turn off the TV and spend some quality time together learning how our ancestors fed themselves.

What if disaster strikes and you are away from home? To learn the 5 things you should always have in your car to be prepared for everything, you can click HERE.

And to learn how you can become prepared and confident no matter what disaster strikes, you can go here: Prepared For Everything.

You may be surprised at how little preparation it takes to give yourself a great deal of peace of mind as you are positioned to meet disaster head on.

By Mike Kuykendall, Preparedness Expert

Video Marketing – The Great Advantage of Using Video Squeeze Page

[BMOI] Hi Everyone,

Is it really is a good idea to switch from text squeeze pages to video squeeze pages? Online consumers these days are being blasted more and more with hype and glaring advertisements and this has forced Internet marketers to consider other tactics to capture their target markets attention and a video squeeze page is a very effective tool that can accomplish this.

Recent studies have shown and proven that professionally created product descriptions on video are much more effective in attracting and keeping visitors on your site than the standard text page. A video will capture your visitors’ attention right at the very moment he or she accesses your page, even if your visitor is not reading the text. Also, it is much easier for anyone to understand a concept or concepts when it is being explained in a video or been demonstrated in a video tutorial.

Another great advantage of using video squeeze pages is that you can make your offer within the video on your squeeze page and you could also offer a second instructional video as a bonus.

Alternatively you could show the first part of an informative video and then invite your visitors to fill in an opt in form to get the rest of the story.

This tactic will prove extremely effective if your video is interesting enough and compelling enough to make your visitor want to continue.

A video conveys a message much better than any text possibly could because a video gives the viewer a three-dimensional idea instead of just words and this will make your viewers more likely to trust you a video will also start establishing a relationship with your viewer immediately instead of after the information is filled out.

Some Internet marketers use multiple videos on their pages. One video could be an introduction to the person offering the product or service. The second video could be a demonstration of the product itself.

The following videos could be testimonials or anything else. The possibilities really are unlimited using videos.

Except for the video itself your video squeeze page will have the same basic elements as any text squeeze page, it will have a strong headline, bullet points, testimonials and an offer your visitors can’t refuse along with an opt in form for your visitors to enter their contact information into.

Creating a good professional video requires skill, effort, time and experience and if possible it would be best for you to hire other that has the ability and experience to add all the necessary elements to your video as this will save you a lot of time. If you are not able to hire a professional to create your video you do have the option of choosing one of the many squeeze page templates available online that offer video capabilities.

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It would be best to put in the time and effort to create your own customized video squeeze page right from the start because you will get better results and you will not have to redo everything if your goals are not being achieved by using standard templates that many beginning marketers are using.

Carson Leong is a small business internet marketer at using article and video marketing, blogging to drive highly targeted traffic to websites. He can help you grow your online business and earn $14,500 just bu sending out 7 emails without any product. Click here to know how he did it or visit inboxatmsecrets.com to find out more.

Thank YOU for reading this Post. "Video Marketing – The Great Advantage of Using Video Squeeze Page" was Added by "James Reilly"

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