My parents lived through famine in the 1950s in northern Ontario … in Canada! They were born and raised in the wilderness and lived the first 20 years of their lives on their own without any government support, participation or inclusion. They were also survivors of the residential school system as children, so they survived IN SPITE of what the government tried to do to them.

So as children, whenever we would ever think of throwing away any edible food … mom and dad would scold us and lecture us on the fact that they and their parents had to starve at one point in their lives.

I’m middle aged now, my parents are gone but I’ll always remember their words and whenever I see any amount of food that might be thrown away, I do my best to save it, share it, preserve it … or at the very least, give it to dogs, animals or crumble it up for birds to eat.

They taught me that one of the greatest sins that any person can perform is to waste food or deny it from someone else that might need it or use it.