ECHO 2

Featured: New friends presenting me with waste-stream gifts

Food: gathering food is nothing short of unpredictable here. I plan for one thing and I randomly get blindsided by what I need. In the morning, at the ECHO breakfast gathering, I brought in 3 pieces of bread to toast. 3, not 4 because I'm rationing the loaf so I'll have, atleast, something to eat every morning. This is more or less how my mind works, planning my meals, money, material use in ways that will sustain my life for periods of time. While firing up the toaster (I asked the group if anyone knew the energy source, if it was nuclear or not im not sure, the good news is that i didnt even push down the toaster flusher for the 2nd batch, meaning I didn't contribute to the electric demand for that batch because i forgot).

While toasting, the group asked me if i noticed the bread ends that were left in the bag from the community food table. They were assuming that I could probably eat the two ends because no one else was eating them. I was very perplexed. To me, the end slices of bread loaves are not waste, they are slices of bread. I shared with them my method of consuming a loaf of bread. I start at the beginning and work my way to the end- Is the the ends the the bread less than the other slices, thats what i asked the group. I fear that I was too agressive that morning on the bread topic. You mean to tell me, of all the good hearted and resource minded folks in that room, none eat the bread ends. They all just throw them away in their own lives? I was another moment that I felt I should just turn and walk out the door, turn and walk away.

Hear the Children Cryin'

One statement made about the function of bread ends was that they may help keep the loaf fresh as you keep the end to cover the bread from being exposed to air. The next observation was that bread is usually already concealed within a plastic bread bag. Bringing the thought to mind about the uselessness of using bread ends for that function. I put on a brief demonstration on my method of twisting and keeping bread in a plastic bread bag. It is cultural tradition, passed on through the generations of my bread eating family and i was happy to share the old Indian trick. First remove the air and neatly organize the remaining slices of bread inside the bag. Second, twist the bag by spinning the loaf in one hand while safely holding the opened end with the other hand. Third, envelop the remaining loaf within it own bag by pulling the exess plastic, backwards over the loaf . Then the results should be a fairly tight seal, with no need to be concerned about the front slice of bread become stale in the short term storage situation.

This is what keeps me up at night. 2 slices of bread are being thrown away for every loaf. does one loaf last for a week, if so then 52 weeks a year is 104 slices of bread. that can't be right. Do you see my concern? how much bread are we THROWING AWAY, or FEEDING TO THE BIRDS. Can't you hear the children crying. Starvation.

I am exactly where I need to be. At ECHO I am surrounded by great people who have the power to save countless numbers of lives all around the world. And it is from these people that the first conversation of the day is about the theory of food waste and how to make changes in our own lives to pull our own weight.The waste stream life is so unpredictable here. For lunch, I cut up one of my waste stream potatoes and cooked it in the microwave. To it, I added a bunch a spices, mainly curry powder, and some left over salad green from the community lunch. GOOD.
Also during lunch, two new friends could not stop asking me questions about Uganda! They finally left the room because the saw that I would just keep talking to them and not eat, thats me.
While on one of the tours of the Farm after lunch, we past some fruit (grapefruit, oranges, ect) laying and awaiting their destiny towards the compost. I selected three things to take to dinner in the evening. I was very proud of the fruit bowl that it turned out to be and very interested in showing it off to my new friends. But it was nothing in comparison to the gifts that were at the dinner.

the featured photo with my friends shows the bounty that was obained from a food pantry who had already 'second harvested' it, then the pantry need to get rid of it. This, in reality, it 'third harvest' waste. Bananas, pie's cookies, sweets, lots of carbs. so I have photo of my dinner plate, and then a photo of leftover apple pie, heading for the trash. GOOD(ish)

During dinner I also got to try Moringa Jelly.

I could go on for days, meaning i could type and talk for a long time, and that i have food and can live for a few more days!

Randomly picked up a peanut off the floor in a classroom, and also a candy peice was either half eaten or never made it in a package, was siting in the candy bowl. I assumed no one wanted it.

ECHO Farm; Bob Hargrave demonstrates the use of Moringa "The Miracle Tree" seed process of water purification.