SoSA West

Waste not: SoSA West fights hunger, wasted food through gleaning

By Lisa Ousley, SoSA West director

Each week in the Kansas City area as many as 66,000 different people seek emergency food assistance. In Missouri, one in four children lives in homes where there is not enough food; in Kansas one in five children live in food-insecure homes.

Yet every year, we throw away more than enough nutritious food to feed each hungry family, senior, and child in the U.S. — more than 96 billion pounds — according to the USDA. Food that could nourish our citizens ends up in landfills.