
Did you know more than 34 million people in the United States, including 9 million children, are food insecure?
Food insecurity happens when families have consistent access to enough food for each person in the household to have an active and healthy life because of their economic situation.1
On the other side of this tragedy, Feeding America reports,
"Food goes to waste at every stage of food production and distribution - from farmers to packers and shippers, from manufacturers to retailers to our homes. Food waste in our homes makes up about 39% of all food waste - about 42 billion pounds of food waste."2
What can we as individuals do to help overcome these challenges? We can provide food to help families and do our part to reduce waste in our homes. We can also become aware of the food we are privileged enough to eat daily and not experience food insecurity.
We can be more mindful of the food we consume. By becoming aware and conscious of our food, we can consume less and waste less to start the change ourselves.
A Mindful Eating Exercise
One way to become more mindful of what we eat is through an exercise called Looking deeply into your food, an exercise by Jan Chozen Bays, a Zen teacher, author, mindful eating educator, and pediatrician through her talk on the Waking Up app, which you must hear because she also shares other mindfulness exercises to help us become more present in our own lives.
In this exercise, you look at a piece of food before you and look deeply into its history to think about the people and beings who helped the food get to you.
Instructions:
Identify a piece of food before you, such as a piece of bread, a carrot, or coffee (see my exercise below)
Notice the color, shapes, texture, and smell of the bread
Imagine looking back at the history of the bread before it got to you by asking, "And before that?"
Keep track of how many people helped to bring the bread to you.
Details of my exercise
I love coffee and enjoy it every morning, so I chose coffee as my food item for this exercise.
Here is my exercise:
1. I chose the coffee I drink as focus of this exercise.
2. I noticed the coffee's dark color, the cup's warmth, the wonderful aroma, and the delicious taste as I took my first sip.
3. I looked back at the history of the coffee I was drinking and started thinking step by step backward.
A person had to grind the coffee
and before that?
A person had to buy the coffee
and before that?
A person had to deliver the bag of coffee from the store
and before that?
A person had to stock the coffee on the shelves
and before that?
A person had to deliver and unload the boxes of coffee
and before that?
A person had to load the boxes of coffee into the truck
and before that?
A person had to package the coffee into the bags
and before that?
A person had to make sure the quality of the coffee was good
and before that?
A person had to add the coffee beans to the machine for roasting
and before that?
A person had to unload the sacks of coffee from the truck
and before that?
A person had to load the truck with sacks of coffee
and before that?
A person had to drive the truck from the country where the coffee beans were harvested
and before that?
A person had to load the truck with sacks of coffee beans
and before that?
A person had to add the coffee beans to the sacks carefully
and before that?
A person had to transport the beans from the plantation to the factory for packaging
and before that?
Many farm workers had to pick the coffee beans from the plants
and before that?
Many farm workers took care of the coffee plantation to make sure their plants stayed healthy
and before that?
The sun provided the energy for the coffee plant to grow
and before that?
The rains provided the water for the plant to grow
and before that?
The soil, with all its nutrients, supported the plant to grow from a seed to a healthy plant steadily
and before that?
Many farm workers put the seeds into the soil
and before that?
The farm workers tilled the land to prepare it to sow the seeds
As I went through this exercise, I realized just how many people were involved in bringing my morning cup of coffee to me. It helped me see a simple cup of coffee that I never thought much about in a whole new light. It gave me an appreciation for every person and the hard work they put into it. I can feel a fundamental change in how I think about this one food item, and I can only imagine how this exercise will change my approach to everything I eat.
Please try out this mindful eating exercise to help you appreciate the food you have available for you. The effects of this exercise will help us bring more appreciation for all the things we consume and begin making the change that is within our control to do our small part to help end food insecurity.
I would love to hear how this exercise went for you. Let me know in the comments!
Have a wonderful day!
Rizwan
https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america
https://www.feedingamerica.org/our-work/reduce-food-waste#:~:text=How%20much%20food%20waste%20is,food%20in%20America%20is%20wasted