looking back on the last time you had a meal with a group of people, how many of the others actually finished everything on their plate, or how many times do you go to clear your plate in the dinning hall and see other plates there filled with uneaten food, maybe you wonder what happens with the uneaten food at eating establishments, the answer is they get put in a dumpster, 30-40% of food in America goes to waste, so that would be like filling a plate with food and just throwing away a large portion of it every time you ate. While all this food is going to waste there are 48.1 million households in the United States that are food insecure, which means that those household do not know where their next meal is coming from, now this is not an unsolvable thing, by reducing the food wastage by only 15 percent would be enough to feed 25 million Americans. Not only is this a burden on those who are less fortunate but also on those who have food but also on those who handle it and every involvement in between, 218 billion dollars a year is put into food that is ultimately put to waste, that is 52 tons of food put into a landfill every year, and an additional 10 tons that is discarded or left unharvested at farms, this all starts with being responsible, the majority of the waste coming from households, with approximately 144 billion dollars worth of food going to waste from houses alone. There are small simple things that can be done to reduce the waste in your household, and that begins with being realistic with what you'll eat and what you won't when you go shopping at the grocery store, recognize food you don't regularly finish or even eat at all and be responsible when shopping. Also 70% of refrigerators are set at too high of a temperature, which leads to premature expiration of food, you're refrigerator should be a few degrees above freezing point for optimal food preservation and minimized food waste. More than 50% of household say they threw away food because they cooked too much, a solution for that is to use your leftovers for upcoming meals, as well as many efforts across the country to donate your extra food. Now there are many many more methods and examples of reducing your food waste, but what it all comes down to is being responsible and conscious of what you are doing, wasted food will not be reduced without the effort being put in to help reduce. So next time your out getting food, take a moment and think about what you really need.

http://www.thinkeatsave.org/index.php/top-tips-on-reducing-food-waste

https://www.meansdatabase.com/about?gclid=CjwKEAjw6e_IBRDvorfv2Ku79jMSJAAuiv9YvbEbFq-DvjbzUfXyy4rt-k2nplIy6jT35Roi2HADVRoCjhPw_wcB

https://foodforward.org/2015/10/food-waste-in-america/?gclid=CjwKEAjw6e_IBRDvorfv2Ku79jMSJAAuiv9YR6HFi7PGoOw-gilCEWQo_wcGO-GZEv4Wpqm8natUdxoCTGrw_wcB

http://endhunger.org/food-waste/

http://www.foodrescue.net/easy1.html?gclid=CjwKEAjw3KDIBRCz0KvZlJ7k4TgSJABDqOK75xbJLtYPge1Tuu14z1ZS75uCmzrxUBejyQIG7qDHIxoCguvw_wcB

http://www.restaurant.org/advocacy/Food-Waste

http://www.fao.org/save-food/resources/keyfindings/en/