Leftovers Page #8

You can't enjoy your

retirement years

because you have to

work to try to keep

your head above water.

- At our age, nobody

wants to hire us,

because we are retired,

and we're over 65.

- In a small town like we are,

if somebody falls

and breaks their leg

and is gonna be

laid up for a while,

we as a community

will minister to them.

But you get in a big city,

then you don't even

know your neighbors.

Most poor people are givers.

They're willing to share.

If they have an apple,

they'll cut it in half

and give you part of it.

- Between the oranges,

grapefruit, onions and cabbage,

this is all that's left

that's been distributed,

and this stuff will

all go back now

to the Capital Area Food Bank

and be redistributed

out to other food banks

so that other people in

the area will get it.

So I think all in all,

being out here in Lometa,

it was a pretty successful day

with the stuff that

got distributed out,

and making sure

that at least today,

seniors aren't going hungry.

So it's a good day.

- It's really critical that

we really return to that idea

about neighbors

helping neighbors.

- [Seth] What do you

think that it's gonna take

in this country, in

the state of Michigan,

in the city of Detroit,

to re-evaluate the

resources and priorities

and say, we have to take

care of these people.

- A lot of people

are willing to help

if they knew what was going on.

Some people really do not know

what the plight of some

of our seniors are.

- [Seth] Does that make you

mad, or at least frustrated,

knowing that we

throw away somewhere

between 50 to 70 billion

pounds of food every year,

and we produce enough food

in this country every year

to feed the entire world,

but yet we have people

in the streets of Detroit

who are going hungry every day.

- It's frustrating, from

the standpoint that,

we ought to be able to

come up with a solution

to feed those who

are most vulnerable.

- Forgotten Harvest is

a food rescue operation.

We rescued over 23 million

pounds of food last year.

This is surplus.

This is perfectly good food.

This food would have gone

to waste in a landfill

otherwise, had we not gone

and rescued that food.

- [Seth] How would

it go to a landfill?

Is it something that they just,

after they've picked

whatever is on the farm?

- In some cases, yeah.

In some cases, for an

industrial supplier,

they may take it

directly to the landfill.

On the farms, some of the

farms that we rescue from,

this would be plowed

under, potentially.

- [Seth] Really?

- Because they couldn't use it.

Surplus, perhaps it

wasn't the right size.

Perhaps it was a little too

small, a little too big.

That's the food

that we can rescue

that's just as good as anything

you get in the grocery store.

(bleeping)

When many people

think of food waste,

they're thinking of what

comes off the table.

But if it's not a perfect size,

our culture and our

country has taught

the buyers, our retail buyers,

customers within

their grocery store,

that it has to look perfect,

because if it doesn't look

perfect, it's not good.

It's just simply not true.

So if a cucumber isn't

exactly the right size,

or a tomato isn't

exactly the right shape,

they won't even bring it

from that industrial farm,

it'll be wasted before it

ever got to the store itself.

And it's not someone's fault,

it's basically that we are

such an efficient society.

We've learned how to produce it,

our agriculture process

is better than anything

else in the world.

But there's a lot

of waste with that.

- I just, I'm still...

I look at this,

and I eat yellow, red, orange,

and green peppers all the time,

and I cannot see a single thing

that would be wrong with this.

- There is absolutely nothing

wrong with this at all.

- [Seth] To warrant surplus.

- This probably

would have cost you

five bucks in the grocery store.

Okay?

And this was surplus

food, an overproduction,

that can't go to market.

So we're able to take that

food, rescue that food.

This is gonna be out in

someone's home next week.

- [Seth] Yeah.

- Ready to go.

For a lot of seniors

this is good food.

Seniors love the produce,

know how to fix it,

and just need to get

their hands on it.

Basically, our day starts at

seven o'clock in the morning.

Our trucks go out,

go to grocery stores,

major entertainment

venues, pick up the food.

Most of that food, and

we pick up from dairies,

we pick up from

meat wholesalers,

anybody that's

merchandising, retailing food

for the most part.

We have over 455 food donors.

We pick that food

up, that afternoon,

we take that food to an

emergency food provider,

agencies across the

tri-county area,

we cover over

22,000 square miles,

we have about 200 agencies,

and we deliver that

food, that day, to them.

By the next day, or that

night, it's on someone's table.

- Food is a big issue

for many people,

but nutrition is an

even bigger issue.

Can I get three meals a day?

Yes.

Is it always nutritious?

No.

And yet it's the nutrition

that important because,

you know, I take what I get.

And there is a lot of

very good food in there,

but can I sit and say,

"Oh, well, gee, I need

more calcium today.

"I don't have any milk,

"I don't have any eggs,

I don't have any cheese.

"What am I going to do?"

If you actually

look you will find

that there are people

everywhere in North America

that are hungry,

that need the food

and aren't getting it.

And it's because we are no

longer community oriented.

We're all individual oriented.

We've lost the family value.

- Most black families

that I know are not tight.

Not close.

- [Seth] Really?

- Really.

You know, it's like everybody

fending for themselves.

You know, being separated.

I think it's my daughter's

religion and her beliefs

that make her see fit to

help take care of her mother.

(laughs)

- [Seth] A lot of seniors

are too proud to say,

"Hey, I need help!"

- [Carline] I can't understand

why people won't ask for help

when they need it.

You know, there's nothing

wrong with trying to do it,

but when you know you can't

and when you see

you can't, holler.

- [Seth] Squeaky wheel

gets the grease, right?

- Yes.

Yes, that's a true statement.

(chuckles)

- We see the poverty changing.

It's not among the people

who've always been poor.

The new face of poverty

among the elderly

are the people who used

to be middle class.

They're the middle class

former working people

who had, you know,

they had it all.

They had the home,

they had the car,

they had kids who

went to college.

But now because

of the recession,

their retirement dreams have

been completely smashed.

Most people never thought they

would find themselves poor.

They never thought they

would be making daily choices

between food and medicine.

But you know what, they are.

They're making those

choices every day.

And they're choosing to

eat macaroni and cheese

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