Caritas Niger’s livelihood programme aims to improve the lives of smallholder farmers in Niger by boosting production.
Enormous quantities of food are thrown away every day.
Over the course of a year, about one third of global food production is lost or wasted.
The problem is the worst in rich countries. In Europe and North America, the average person wastes between 95 and 115 kilograms of food every year. In sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, this falls to 6 to 11 kilograms. But that’s still too much in this age of scarcity and high prices.
Caritas raises awareness about the growing seriousness of food waste as prices rise and food insecurity increases. Some national Caritas organisations redistribute good quality, untouched food through their soup kitchens. It would otherwise be thrown out.
Caritas also campaigns for sensible food production and usage policies and for action to be taken to protect and share global food production.
“Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of the poor and hungry.” Pope Francis
Caritas Updates on Food Waste
