When the sun sets on Tel Aviv and outdoor food stalls start closing, Carmel Market, the largest and busiest market in the city, becomes the scene where men and women, mostly old but some young also, hurriedly gather to collect the unsold vegetables and fruits discarded on the ground. They are native Israelis and illegal immigrants who are united in poverty and eager to find some food that they can take home.
Among those food collectors, there is now a small, new group: the volunteers who dedicate their time to battling food waste.
Several associations in Israel try reducing food waste while helping to feed the poor. Leket Israel, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that works closely with governmental institutions, is dedicated to “lead the safe, effective and efficient collection and distribution of surplus nutritious food in Israel, to those who need it.” Its vision, as stated on its website, is "an Israel where all surplus, nutritious food is rescued and directed to those who need it." A 2017 report by the BDO consulting company, commissioned by Leket Israel, estimated that 33% of all food produced annually in the country is wasted. In other words, more than 2 million tons of food end up in the garbage every year. The report further estimated that about half of this quantity is salvageable and fit for human consumption.
Yael Armon of The Natural Step (TNS Israel) explains that similar to most developed countries, Israel faces food waste on a wide scale, yet there are several factors that make the problem in Israel unique. “Close to 18% of the Israeli population suffers from food insecurity. On the other side of the scale, an average Israeli family throws away about 8,000 Israeli shekels [$2,200] worth of food every year. In that respect, our two main objectives are educating the public and transforming food insecurity into a high priority problem for the Israeli decision-makers. We focus on reducing food waste by the big food chains, promoting the sale of products with short expiration dates and advocating a national agenda on battling food insecurity,” Armon, who heads the research at the organization's Food Waste Lab, told Al-Monitor.
AL-MONITOR All-Access gives you unlimited access to all our journalism, the full Daily Briefing, exclusive interviews, premium newsletters, and live events — for less than $2/week.
