Mike, you do amaze me. You are right--it's a shame the store owners can't see beyond their ledger. There are so many appliances thrown out that have simple fixes. For a person with a wage it's almost the same price to buy a new one as to get a repair man to fix it, so that's why there's such great waste in this country
I had read where many restaurants in the larger cities would allow the homeless to take food out from the back of their ktichens. This was food that would be wasted as people in the restaurant didn't finish it. Otherwise it was perfectly good food. But--the law said "oh no, you can't do that, someone might get sick. You MUST throw that food away" So the restaurant owners got together to figure out a way around this. What they came up with was a great idea--they'd put the food into take out containers, and then carefully set these sealed containers ON TOP of the trash in the bins. Then, they weren't redistributing 'used food', simply throwing out their trash! But the waste is incredible. Years ago my Mother took a short stint in the grade school cafeteria, just to have something to do. She said she felt really bad one day as this little boy came up and asked if there were any extra hot dogs he could have, as that's what was served that day, because he was still hungry. The 'fresh' dogs were all gone, but there were some untouched ones on a couple plates so she gave him those. She was pulled aside later and told never to do that again, that it broke the law. She said--but he was hungry! They said--too bad. Nothing gets taken off one plate to be put on another plate! And I had 3 dogs so one day Mom asked them if she could bring me home all that wasted scrap food that was scraped from hundreds of luncheon plates. The in charge person said she could have it that one time, but never again because 'it's the law--no food is to leave this unless it's as garbage, in the garbage can, and can't even be eaten as pet food"!! Simply unbelievable. But it's heart warming to hear of folks like yourself, who go out of their way to help others in need, without expecting any reward. Thank you. Samala, Renee
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