Incompetent or in on it?

I got a check from New York State for $150 as part of the state’s “ongoing battle to fight inflation.” One hundred fifty dollars, imagine that. It’s laughable and embarrassing that they think that for $150 we’re going to believe that they’re actually doing something to help people. My household is just my fiancee and I, and we can’t go to the grocery store without spending $100, and that doesn’t even include meat and fish which I buy separately. And we’re going to the grocery store 2 - 3 times per week. So where does $150 get someone really?

It’s crumbs compared to what the government pisses away on a daily basis. But crumbs for the people is the history of this country. Politicians hand out crumbs to shut people up, and we accept those crumbs as something being better than nothing, and forget what it is we have been fighting for.

The timing of this check is interesting because the hope of crumbs is what the Democrats accepted to end the government shut down. A lot of people are pissed off about it (watch Jon Stewarts excellent take). They think that they sold out the American people, but the reality is they never actually cared about the American people. If they did then we wouldn’t be in a position as a country where food insecurity persists, and millions of people remain without health insurance, and millions more can barely afford the insurance they do have.

If they cared, they would have shored up those basic rights years ago when they were in control, the way Republicans are now in control. Everyone on the left wants to blame the right for the lack of progress in this country, but I blame the left. They too have controlled all branches of government multiple times in the last 50 years and yet they have never accomplished any of the things they have promised. Always instead blaming the republicans for holding up their agenda. And yet when the Republicans take control, they seem to to get done what they want.

So which one is it? Is the right blocking their agenda? Is the left too incompetent to get anything done? Or do they just not actually give a shit as long as they’re able to stay in power? I think a $150 check to fight inflation is all you need to know to figure out the answer.

RFK Jr can’t MAHA if he doesn’t fight to feed America

The thing I’m most curious about is what is RFK Jr and his MAHA movement doing right now while the government has stopped funding SNAP. Food is the most essential part of good health and yet the administration that brought you Make America Healthy Again is openly and freely taking food off the table of millions of Americans in order to squeeze the Democrats into accepting their budget terms which include cutting funding to subsidized health insurance.

I can’t say that I didn’t expect this from the Trump administration, but I will admit I was fooled by RFK Jr. I actually believed that he understood what it would take to make American’s healthier and I actually believed that he would put up a fight to make it happen. Instead all I’ve read about him is that he’s working on removing some dyes from processed food while still allowing the trash that is processed food to be manufactured and sold, he’s revised the vaccine schedule, and now he’s on a crusade to change the perception of saturated fats.

Maybe all of those things hold a place in getting American’s healthy, but none of them matter at all if people don’t have food to eat, and affordable (should be free) health insurance to not only take care of them when they fall ill but make sure that they don’t go into bankruptcy at the same time (the stress of which creates a whole new set of illness). But it’s clear that RFK Jr., Donald Trump, and anyone else in the administration is not actually concerned about it.

I’ve been thinking recently about how it just takes one bold person, and a few bold people that are willing to go out on a limb to support him/her to make change, and yet it seems that at every turn we have nothing but cowards and selfishly greedy people directing the future. Mamdani is an example of someone who is bold and who is willing to put himself out there. Like him or not he stood firm in the face of adversity, stuck to his beliefs, and won. The fact that he won so easily when both the right and the left were so adamant he can’t win says a lot.

It says that people are waking up to the fact that none of the career politicians have our best interests at heart. They are only interested in doing the bare minimum to get re-elected, maintain power, and continue to line their pockets. But the more they squeeze the every day person the more the every day people are going to come together and seek real genuine change like Mamdani is offering NYC. While the current administration is cutting off FOOD benefits to millions, the majority of people in NYC voted for the guy who wants to open government funded grocery stores.

It’s clear what the people want and perhaps the people are finally starting to realize they hold the power and the only way they’ll secure their future is by coming together and voting for something new.

It blows my mind how our government lets people go hungry

It's so fucking dumb that we live in a country where there are organizations fighting to end hunger while our government is simultaneously starving people. We all support these organizations fighting to feed people pretending like it's ok that millions of people in this country fail to get their daily nourishment, and like it’s normal that this responsibility falls on the shoulders of everyone but the organization we pay trillions in dollars to. The government.

It blows my mind how easily we all turn a blind eye and pretend like its ok. Like its normal. Like all the money we choose to spend on wars, destruction, and to further line peoples pockets instead of helping people is just the way it is. Why? Why do we pretend like it is? Why do we pretend like it's just the way it has to be.

I read a few articles about Zohran Mamdani and his ideas for NYC. I didn't think any of them were crazy. Raising the minimum wage to something livable, where people would only have to work one job to have a life. Funding groceries stores with tax dollars so everyone can eat. Freezing rents for people living in rent controlled apartments. All these things to help the people that are struggling and the response I heard from the people who's taxes would increase is I'm going to leave the city. Business is going to leave the city.

Rather than being part of something historic, like giving people a break, people and businesses are like no we're just going to leave, and then what will you do? How shitty of a person do you have to be for that to be your stance? You're a millionaire, a billionaire, and rather than fork some more money into the pot you want to leave to prove a point and drain the city.

People are sometimes shitty. But I'm glad that the majority are waking up to that realization. As the divide grows bigger so does the number of people who are struggling and who are realizing that they have to band together to protect themselves by electing people who will fight for regulations that serve them. That they need to stop pretending like living in the richest country in the world and not having anything to eat, anywhere to live, is ok.

That's what the election of a Democratic Socialist in New York City says, and that's what the overwhelming support of propositions in Colorado to support free school meals for kids k-12 says. That we're sick and tired and we won’t stand for it any more.

1 percent rejoice, 99 percent starve

Two headlines appeared in my news feed today. The stock market hit all time highs, while the most vulnerable portion of our population is in danger of losing their food benefits. How could those two things be true at the same time? How could a small but powerful percentage of our population be celebrating, while the large and vulnerable percentage of our population is no doubt riddled with fear and anxiety? What does that say about the direction, or current state, of our country?

I read the other day that 50 percent of the spending in this country is from 10 percent of the population. Let that sink in. How sustainable of a situation is that when 10 percent of the population is propping up the economy? What could possibly go wrong?

On my local ballot for this election period is two questions. One, do you agree to let the state keep excess tax collected above projections to pay for food for children in the upcoming year. Two, do you agree we should raise taxes on households making more than $300,000 to fund food for children in the years to come? And I'm torn on the second one.

While I want every kid in this state, in every state across the country and the world, to have all their meals for free, I struggle with the idea of raising taxes to pay for it when I know how misallocated billions and trillions of tax dollars already are. Funding foreign wars in the last 2 – 3 years alone has cost of over $250 billion as a nation. The proposal to bail out Argentina could cost us another $30 billion.

We already have the money to feed everyone in this country but time and time again we choose not to, and instead fund destructive wars, or provide aid to everyone but our own. And every year its a question of whether or not we can pay for safety net program like SNAP, like Medicaid.

So how do I continue to vote to raise taxes when I know that at some point down the line, even if this ballot measure passes and funds school meals for now, it will eventually be used for something malevolent. It's a shitty and maddening position to be in. And they know that. That's why the opposition to the measure isn't to reallocate funds away from wars and corporate greed. The opposition is: taxes bad.

And I agree, new taxes are bad. But in this case not providing meals to children is far worse and I figure I'll let someone else figure out why we're pissing our money away to foreign countries for purposes of destruction and corruption instead of actually helping them. And in the interim I'll vote yes to raise taxes and feed children.

The Reality

There’s basically four jobs you can do when you volunteer with We Don’t Waste (not including setting up and breaking down the market, which everyone works together on).

You can work the check in table. That is verifying that the participants have a reservation, and checking them in to the system so we can keep track of how many families we’ve served (an average market serves 400 families, 2,000 - 3,000 people). 

You can work the food tables where customers shop, making sure that the tables are stocked, and that customers take the right amount of each item (every item has a limit to ensure that all participants have the opportunity to shop the item).

You can work the market entrance and assign families that need a shopping cart to a volunteer working a cart. Lastly, you can volunteer to work a shopping cart, which involves following a person or family through the market, helping load their items into the cart, pulling the cart for them, and then following them to their car or house (when its close) and unloading the items for them.

Carts is the job I most prefer.

I prefer it for two reasons. One, it is the most active and physically demanding of all the jobs. It requires 2.5 hours of constant moving, walking, and occasional lifting.

Second, I love it because it gives me the opportunity to interact with the people who come to our markets, and it allows me to get to know a little bit about them.

The demographics of the people who come to our markets is diverse. Young and old. Singles and families. Citizens and immigrants. Housed and unhoused. And everything in between. The question I ask most people is “where are you from.”

A young man with his baby girl from Afghanistan, in America attending college.

A very young girl rom Spain, shopping for her whole family who presumably couldn’t make it to the market because they had to work.

A mother and grandmother from Ethiopia.

A young girl born in Colorado, but whose parents immigrated from Kenya.

A young man no older than me with a baby girl who told me he walked from Venezuela with his wife (his daughter he priorly exclaimed was born in Colorado). It took them 2 months, and they had to cross the dreaded Darién Gap.

An elderly overweight woman from Colorado with health complications.

A family from Panama.

A 37 year old man from Vietnam, who’s lived in America for 10 years.

A lady from El Salvador who’s been in America for 30 years, in Colorado for 20 of them.

A young unhoused couple and their dog, from Colorado, living out of their car.

A Native American Man and his wife.

Two friends, a male and female, the woman carrying her beautiful 7 month old baby girl, who came to America from Egypt 2 years ago.

An elderly woman from Colorado shopping for herself, her 18 yr old grandson, his 17 year old girlfriend, and their infant. All of whom live with her.

A handful of families from various parts of Mexico.

A young American woman with 5 kids, 3 of whom are special needs.

These are the people we serve. These are the people whose lives we make a little bit easier by providing them with free food and baby supplies (WeeCycle partners at all We Don’t Waste Markets to provide free diapers, formula, and occasional extras such as winter coats, blankets, toys, and books for children). These are the people who we make feel a little bit more welcomed, by being kind and offering our help to them.

And in turn they are kind, generous, and grateful whenever they are at our markets.

These are the people I get to know just a little bit whenever I work a shift. And these are the people that remind me that no matter where you come from in the world, or what your hardship is, that all you want is to be fed, cared for, and welcomed into society.

And these are the people that remind me that every effort by the news, politicians, and lobbying groups, to make us think otherwise, is absolute horse shit.

What does an expiration date on food actually mean?

I got these yogurts, with a “Jan 29 2025” expiration date, from a food drive I participated in on February 7th.

“Expired” Yogurt

They were left over at the end of the drive, and given their “Jan 29th Expiration Date,” I took a case of 18 home with me for fear that at some point, some misguided government rule or regulation would force these perfectly good yogurts to be thrown away. As I write this on February 21st, I’m still eating them. In fact, I had one not long ago for breakfast.

This was the second food drive I had been a part of in as many weeks, and at each one there was a full palate of yogurts being given away. Everything we give out at our markets is food that was recovered through partnerships with grocery stores, retail stores, restaurants, and bakeries. All of the food we recover and distribute would have otherwise been thrown away. For reasons like “past due.”

A palate of recovered yogurt being distributed at our market

The customers who attend our markets are a mix of locals and migrants, young and old, families and singles, who all share a common struggle: food insecurity.

Luckily for our community, and our planet, organizations now exist who intercept “food waste” and divert it from the landfill and into peoples homes. Over 50 million people in the U.S. experience food insecurity every day (many of them are children), and many millions more struggle with nutrition insecurity (not getting the nutrition they need). And decomposing food in landfills is one of the leading causes of climate change. It emits a gas called methane, which is arguably more deleterious to our environment than carbon dioxide.

Recovering food and distributing it for free at our markets kills two birds with one stone.

But so when we think about expired food, or food past its “Best Buy” date, what does that actually mean? Does it mean we should avoid it at the grocery store, or throw it out if it’s in our refrigerator or pantry? Usually the answer is no. Expiration dates typically indicate food quality, not safety.

Here are a few definitions that I learned from the non-profit I volunteer with, that can help guide your decision making. 

• Sell by date: How long the store can display the product.

• Use by date: The last date that the product is at peak quality.

• Best before date: The best date for flavor and quality
  

I still have a few Jan 29th yogurts, and a few Feb 3rd yogurts from a different batch, in my refrigerator, and I fully intend on eating all of them. Each morning when I pop one open I give it the sensory test, which is the best way to determine if food is safe to eat.

Does it look ok? ✅ 

Does it smell ok? ✅ 

Does it taste ok? ✅ 

If everything checks out, then I’m good to enjoy my food, that was previously destined for the dumpster.