No matter how much it vexes me to waste food, nothing perturbs me more than the economic construct we use every day. It seems to me that if I were an owner of a company, apart from being much happier spending more time with my wife, I would have certain aspects of my company work differently than most. Lets take a gander at some examples.
1. If it were a clothing company: the damaged goods that were either rendered in the process of making the clothing, and damaged goods received back from stores would go to the needy and the poor. Whether distributed by my own company or by a 3rd party that specializes in getting things to the needy wouldn't matter to me.
2. If it were a food company (I'm thinking more like the ones in malls): I would keep track of the numbers, and setup a general average of how much to make of certain items throughout the day; so when it got close to the end of the day, we wouldn't have so much waste. However, this is the part that bothers me. I accidentally got a worker in trouble today because I asked for some of the pretzels that Pretzel Time were throwing away. I was informed that they could not do that (even though I'd been given pretzels many times before) and that the employee who had been giving out pretzels at the end of the day would be written up. That any employee who gave out pretzels would be charged $50 per pretzels. Does this only seem ridiculous to me? Firstly, they shouldn't have that much to throw out if they keep track of numbers correctly. Secondly, I'm sure the dough for those pretzels cost no where near $50. Thirdly, (And my biggest disagreement) How can a company be so selfish, as to rather THROW AWAY food, then give it away. Either way, they get no money for it. I would give it away.
The world in all its greed and selfishness would rather throw away a product than give it away. Congratulations Pretzel Time, you're the kid in the cafeteria who throws away his extra pizza that he didn't have room for instead of giving it to his friend (who would gladly eat it). Because we are indeed your friends. We buy your Pretzels, we fund your employee's salaries, and most importantly, we keep you in business.
I understand that this could cause problems. Dishonest employees making more then needed to hookup friends and family would most definitely occur. This would fall under the other list of items that companies have problems with anyways: Theft. But that's a topic for another day.
Sadly, though I condone it on a large scale, I fall subject to the vice of selfishness all too often. My parents raised me well. Taught to take care of others before myself. To want not. To share what I had with those in need. They taught me, in a word, selflessness. Yet to this day I take care of my needs first. I desire the luxuries of the world. I keep to myself, when I should give. I am, in a word, selfish.
My wife on the other hand is the exact opposite. It's a good thing she loves me enough to put up with me while I work to become more like her, and like Christ.
In the meantime Rachel has a new best seller on the shelves at your local bookstore. This hot item features, me! The exciting story of my life, in all its glory. All my heroic acts of courage and selflessness, all the good deeds I've performed, all the times I realized what was going on! Wait, what?