Food Tank recently had the opportunity to speak with Jordan Figueiredo, from Feedback, who was one of the speakers at the 2015 Food Tank Summit in partnership with The George Washington University.
Food Tank (FT): What will your message be at the Food Tank Summit?
Jordan Figueiredo (JF): The movement to end food waste in the U.S. is gaining serious momentum and Feeding the 5000 Oakland was an amazing fire starter to spark and grow that movement.
FT: How are you contributing to building a better food system?
JF: I am educating, connecting and inspiring people to end food waste all around the world. The solutions, passion, and hard-working folks are all there, we just need to access, support, and connect them.
FT: What are the biggest obstacles or challenges you face in achieving your organization’s goals?
JF: Funding and awareness! People pay for compost and landfill service but most pay nothing for food recovery and very little pay or pay attention to food waste prevention. And, overall, the general public does not know that food waste is the socio-environmental challenge AND opportunity of our time.
FT: Who is your food hero and why?
JF: Tristram Stuart, Founder of Feedback and Author of Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Waste Scandal. He has made a phenomenally positive impact on the movement to end food waste around the world and has inspired me to do the work I do for the movement and now for his organization as well.
FT: In 140 characters or fewer, what is the most important thing we can all do to help change the food system.
JF: The most important thing we can all do to help change the food system is to focus on the easiest way to mitigate climate change, hunger, and waste all at the same time. And that is to focus on preventing wasted food. No other issue easily connects and significantly impacts more than our food and how much we waste. Water, energy, climate, resources, and hunger are all severely impacted by the 1/3 of all food that is wasted. The opportunity is that, with preventing wasted food, and recovering surplus food for others to eat, we can all change the food system and world for the better. And this truly is the low hanging fruit……or veg. We can do this, let’s make it happen!
