AmpleHarvest.org Founder to Present at "Addressing Food Waste: How Faiths/Faith Organizations can Connect Gardening Abundance with Vulnerable Communities’ Food Needs"

Newfoundland, NJ, March 19, 2023 --(PR.com)-- A staggering 40% of all food and 50% of produce is lost to waste annually nationwide, with the average family throwing away $1,500 worth of food per year. Indeed the UN estimates that 1.3 billion tons of food worth more than $1 trillion is lost to waste globally every year.

These losses exacerbate critical issues such as hunger, climate change, the environment and diet related diseases. While a great deal of money is spent dealing with these issues individually, it is easier and more efficient to reduce a major root cause – the waste of perfectly wholesome and edible food.

Because 70% of all food pantries are located in a house of worship, AmpleHarvest.org, a nationwide hunger/food waste nonprofit that enables 62 million gardeners to donate surplus harvests to 8,000 local food pantries, has partnered with the faith community since 2009.

To strengthen that partnership and better reach the 88 million Americans who consider themselves to be people of faith, AmpleHarvest.org launched a program in 2016, called, “Faith Fights Food Waste” (www.FaithFightsFoodWaste.org). This program educates clergy of all faiths about the issue of food waste, and then enables them to give food waste sermons by providing them with boilerplate faith specific sermons they can revise as they see fit, on what their scriptures, faith and traditions say about the food waste. It also provides nine separate calls to action that the congregants can do at home to reduce their own food waste.

“Our goal is to help all members of the faith community learn about food waste solutions that individuals can apply in their day to day lives, including learning about donating surplus garden harvests,” noted Oppenheimer. “Solving food waste helps to reduce hunger and malnutrition and helps the environment as it reduces the waste stream, climate change, and the loss of water and energy used to grow/produce and ship the food.”

This free webinar will focus on how Houses of Worship can help their congregation and community greatly reduce the waste of food, improve vulnerable community’s access to fresh/healthier foods, and improve the environment.

The presentation will discuss the environmental impacts of food lost to waste, and will provide a “ready to go” solution for clergy to use when guiding their followers to reduce food waste. It will also include some best practices the Houses of Worship itself can do to reduce its own food waste. A 30-minute question and answer session will follow the presentation.

Registration link: https://usepa.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_MFMzhdmiTrOyZY7ChfyeKw

Presenters:

· Jenny Stephenson, Land, Chemicals and Redevelopment Division, Region 9, U.S. EPA,
· Gary Oppenheimer, Founder/Executive Director, AmpleHarvest.org
· Dr. Lauren Speeth, President, Elfenworks Productions
· Andy Lemmon, Director of Marketing, Society of Saint Andrew
· Danny Gogal and Ericka Farrell, Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, U.S. EPA (Facilitators)

For questions about this webinar or the EJ Webinar Series for Houses of Worship, please contact Danny Gogal, Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, EPA, gogal.danny@epa.gov.

About AmpleHarvest.org: AmpleHarvest.org, Inc. is a not-for-profit 501c3 organization that works to diminish food waste and hunger in America by educating, encouraging and empowering growers to easily find a local food bank eager to receive the excess garden bounty. Follow AmpleHarvest.org at twitter.com/AmpleHarvest and at Facebook.com/AmpleHarvest.org. For more information, visit www.AmpleHarvest.org/presskit or call AMPLE-6-9880 (267-536-9880).