At a time when record numbers of people are losing their homes, unemployment is rising and a growing number of families are in need, California caterers, hotels and restaurants throw out roughly 1.5 million tons of perfectly good food every year, according to the state Integrated Waste Management Board.
And you know what? If you're the one springing for that hotel banquet, wedding party or corporate event, you have the right to insist that any leftovers be donated to charity.
In fact, a 1996 federal law specifically shields people from liability for any problems resulting from food donations -- if someone gets sick, say.
So why is so much food ending up in the dumpster?
"It's not the liability that caterers are worried about," said Michael Flood, chief exec of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. "It's the logistics."
Simply put, it's often too much hassle for caterers and hotels to arrange for leftover food to be given to a homeless shelter or soup kitchen. So they toss it in the trash.
"They are literally throwing food away," said John Knapp, president of the Foodbank of Southern California. "Meanwhile we have 1.3 million children going to bed hungry every night. It makes no moral sense."
State Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D-Long Beach) tried to take a small step toward remedying this last year with legislation that would have imposed the modest requirement that caterers inform clients they have the option of donating uneaten food to charity.
That bill, SB 1443, was shot down by the California Restaurant Assn., which argued that any such requirement would be troublesome for its members.
So now Oropeza is back with a new bill, SB 35, that she says is once again intended to remedy the problem of all that food going to waste.
And once again, the restaurant association is saying that if there's anything in there that even smacks of a donation requirement for caterers -- or even just a requirement that clients be informed of their rights -- they'll kill off this bill as well.
"The problem is making this a mandate," said Lara Dunbar, the group's senior vice president of government affairs. "This will expose people to breach-of-contract issues."
Big deal, you'd think. With so many people going hungry, and with federal law already protecting food donors, what's the harm in merely ensuring that party throwers know they can do some good with whatever's left in the steam trays?
