if nothing changes, nothing changes

Hellooo friends:) Here are some quick late-night thoughts on taking action to make change. I’ve been living in the dorm for not even a week now, but with community dinners and everyone getting used to residential life, we’ve recently accumulated a lot of food waste. And by a lot, I mean… a LOT. Probably up to 10 pounds of pasta and meat sauce!

In a situation like this, where we have more than 15 people working in the kitchen and food flying everywhere and no one person wholly responsible for any one thing, it is so easy to brush off accountability and say that it is someone else’s mess. It is also pretty easy to stand by at the end of the night as everyone notices the extreme surplus of food and solemnly agree that the best place for it is the trash. Or wait for someone else to “take the leftovers” or “do something with it” when in reality, you probably know that no one will.

No one likes to see this sort of waste happen. But unfortunately, no one likes to take action either.

One option is to be dismissive of the problem or not take ownership. You can turn a blind eye and just “hope” that it will fix itself… and then when the statistics come out about mass food waste and the climate crisis, to sigh about how there is no coming back and society is doomed.

But you have more power than you think.

I get it, it’s hard to do things differently when everyone agrees that this is the easiest, fastest, “best” way. It’s hard to do things differently when no one else is on board. But the truth is, if nothing changes, nothing changes.

There are so many easy ways that we can create positive ripple effects, and I’ll prove it! Take today as an example. A massive amount of leftover pasta and sauce was about to go to waste today, and I couldn’t watch that happen, especially when there are people on our block in the Tenderloin dealing with food insecurity every day.

So, I said I would keep it and do something with it. We didn’t have containers or plastic wrap or plates or forks to give everything out. But as the saying goes, if there’s a will there’s a way. After the food was stored and safe from the trash bin, I went back to do some research… could we go out and buy supplies to give out food with, and how much would that cost? How can we also stay safe in the process? After a quick search, I found what I think to be the most sustainable option, donating leftover food though a local community organization that helps package and distribute it. In a matter of 15 minutes, I emailed the organization and let them know our situation. I’m writing this blog post only an hour or so after sending the email, so I don’t have a response from them just yet, but so far I have done what I can do, and that is something I am proud to say. When they return the message, I will likely bring the prepared food to the closest drop-off location and it will be packaged then distributed from there.

I suppose that all of that inspired this post. I assure you, waiting for someone else to step up and solve a problem never works. Making change is probably easier than you think once you get over the initial resistance and start looking towards actionable steps you can take. So figure out what the first step is — and then take it. And one final time because third time’s a charm, if nothing changes, nothing changes!!!

Love,
Leah