The food waste problem is not new to anyone of us. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), every year 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted or lost. This volume of waste is more than the total net production of Sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, 1 in every 7 people in the world go to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children under the age of 5 die daily from hunger. Approximately 98% of the world?s hungry live in developing nations.

While the planet is struggling to provide us with enough resources to sustain its 7 billion people (growing to 9 billion by 2050), FAO estimates that a third of global food production is either wasted or lost. Food waste is an enormous drain on natural resources and a contributor to negative environmental impacts. In fact, global food production uses 25% of all habitable land and is responsible for 70% of fresh water consumption, 80% of deforestation, and 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. It is the largest single driver of biodiversity loss and land-use change.

I thought of contributing my part and I?m going to share my experience over the issue. There?s a big slum area few km from my college. Also, there are more than 2500 students in my university who eat in the university mess. The amount of food wastage is enormous. I, together with my friends have started a system in which the left-over food is collected in lunchbox?s and distributed to the hungry people in slums.

The reaction which we?re getting is awesome. About 200 people can now eat from the lunchboxes that we collect and that gives me even more enthusiasm to work towards this movement and spread it across the country.