Whenever I would go to a restaurant or a coffee shop, I always wonder what they do with the excess food. Do they give it to their employees? Do they reuse the dish the following day or reinvent it? Or do they just simply throw it out and make a new batch the next day? A new bill filed seeks to avoid that by giving excess food to charities.
Senator Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV filed Senate Bill No. 357, or the Zero Food Waste Act, so that it “ultimately end[s] the cycle of having food end up in the trash instead of stomachs.”
According to Aquino, the move hopes to improve the food security state of Filipino families. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) states that food security happens when a group of people “have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”
In the Philippines, a Social Weather Station (SWS) survey found that 6.9 million families or 31% considered themselves “food-poor” in the first quarter of 2016.
The bill will create the National Anti-Food Waste Scheme, which the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will take charge of. The department will set guidelines and coordinate between establishments and food banks for the proper transfer of edible food. The food establishment will cover the costs of sending the food.
Those who do not follow will be penalized.
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