10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2016
Food recovery hierarchy
The Environmental Protection Agency recommends its food
recovery hierarchy model, where the first preference is to eliminate
food waste at the source. The least preferred method is the use of
incinerators and landfills, although impacts can be mitigated if
energy is created as a by-product of this practice.
ed
err
ref
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Mo
Source reduction
Feed hungry people
Feed animals
Industrial uses
Composting
Sources: USDA ERS; EPA
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Lea
Incineration/
landfill
Capital Press graphic
Ugly food: 30 to
40 percent of food
in US is wasted
Continued from Page 1A
Lutz said I’m Perfect apples
will likely sell for roughly half
the cost of unblemished fruit,
but the return will still be far
superior to making juice,
which pays about $50 per ton.
By comparison, the August
return to fi rst handlers at
Wenatchee was $19 to $22 for
a 40-pound box of the largest
size of top-quality red deli-
cious apples, according to
the U.S. Department of Agri-
culture . A ton of those same
apples, blemished and mar-
keted as “ugly,” could still
fetch up to $550, assuming
half the usual rate of return.
Lutz emphasized I’m Per-
fect will fi ll a small and sea-
sonal niche, offered mainly
around harvest time, and CMI
will have to be “very strategic
in how we use the program” to
reach new consumers rather
than having existing buyers
“shift down.”
Wal mart offi cials learned
of I’m Perfect when they were
reviewing programs at CMI
earlier this year and “got very
excited about it,” Lutz said.
About a month ago,
Wal mart bought a small quan-
tity of scuffed 2015 Granny
Smith apples and quickly
sold out. He anticipates one
of this season’s hail-damaged
orchards will yield 30,000
boxes of I’m Perfect fruit.
In a July blog posting,
Wal mart offi cials also referred
to their new Spuglies brand of
ugly potatoes — weather-dam-
aged russets raised in Texas —
and the “Wonky” vegetable
program at Wal mart’s Great
Britain outlet, Asda.
“What excites me the most
about the launch of these I’m
Perfect apples is that it is a
result of working with our sup-
pliers to build the infrastruc-
ture and processes that cre-
ate a new home for perfectly
imperfect produce,” Shawn
Baldwin, Wal mart’s senior
vice president of global food
sourcing, produce and fl o-
ral, said in the blog. “Because
ugly produce can occur unex-
pectedly in any growing sea-
son or crop, we want to have
the systems in place to offer
this type of produce whenever
it may occur.”
Food crusader
Jordan Figueiredo is on a
mission. His goal is to feed
more people with the ugly
food that many grocers reject.
In his free time, Figueiredo,
of Castro Valley, California ,
a suburb of San Francisco, is
an anti-food waste crusader
with 140,000 social media fol-
lowers, blogging about strat-
egies such as state-funding to
cover farmers’ labor costs to
pick and pack ugly produce for
food banks.
In 2014, Figueiredo orga-
nized Feeding the 5,000 in
Oakland — a free public meal
made with food that would
have otherwise gone to waste.
“We gave away 9,000
pounds of produce, stuff that
was rejected by grocers,”
Figueiredo said. “Since then,
I’ve been hooked on ugly
food.”
Figueiredo started online
petitions encouraging Whole
Foods, of Austin, Texas, and
Wal mart to test ugly food.
Both companies subsequently
announced pilot projects.
Figueiredo points to USDA
statistics as evidence of the
scope of the food waste prob-
lem. The agency estimates 30
to 40 percent of food in the
U.S. is wasted. Wasted food
is also the largest category of
garbage dumped in landfi lls,
according to USDA.
Yet the World Food Pro-
gram estimates 795 million
people in the world are under-
nourished, and 45 percent of
the deaths of children under
age 5 result from malnutrition.
Even in the U.S., 14 percent
of households were described
as “food insecure” due to poor
access to adequate nutrition
in 2014, according to USDA.
Of the estimated 48.1 million
food insecure Americans, 15.3
million were children.
“It’s a social outrage that so
many people are food insecure
and we’re throwing away so
much good food,” Figueiredo
said.
But lately, he’s also noticed
progress. In September , USDA
and the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency announced
a national goal of working
with state and local govern-
ments to reduce food waste in
half by 2030.
“Almost 90 percent of
Americans aren’t eating fi ve
recommended servings of
fruits and vegetables per day,”
Figueiredo said. “You can get
cheaper produce that’s still
fresh and good to folks who
normally wouldn’t be able to
buy it.”
Ministry: Local churchgoers modeled
Continued from Page 1A
theme of “Recycle, Reuse
and Re-love,” while simulta-
neously symbolizing the par-
ish’s faith in the holy trinity,
Lambert said.
After the parish’s annual
rummage sale in July, the w om-
en’s m inistry took select items
from among the leftovers and
set to work repairing and redec-
orating them for inclusion in
the silent auction.
Some of the items, like
many of the clothes, kept their
original function but were
updated into contemporary
styles with new trim, bead
work and other ornamenta-
tion. Some of the items got
new purposes entirely thanks
to the volunteers’ collective
“creative mind,” said fash-
ion show coordinator Marilyn
Sanbrailo.
“We try to think of how we
can make things different,”
Lambert agreed.
Julie
MacLean
models a
cashmere
coat during
the R3
Fashion
Show, Silent
Auction
& Sweet
Treats.
Katherine
Lacaze
For The Daily
Astorian
Volunteer models
Volunteer models came
from several local churches
and organizations, including
the Seaside branch of P.E.O., a
philanthropic organization for
women; Cannon Beach Com-
munity Church; the Sou’Wester
Garden Club; Our Lady of Vic-
tory/St. Peter the Fisherman’s
y outh m inistry; and others.
Attendees bid on the clothing
items modeled during the fash-
ion show.
In addition to the fash-
ion show, the event featured a
live auction for four handmade
quilts designed by local artists,
including Lynda Newell, who
created a piece titled, “Poppies.”
“The real mission is not
just for our church, the Catho-
lic church, but all our churches
to focus on children,” Lambert
said, emphasizing the impor-
tance of making them feel val-
ued and needed as part of the
community. “If our churches
work together to build a youth
program, we’ll all benefi t.”
Miss Oregon: Mather’s stage talent is singing
Continued from Page 1A
Since she won the state title
in July, Mather has been rushed
to Washington, D.C.; Orlando,
Florida; and all around Ore-
gon for events. Now, she is in
Atlantic City, New Jersey, for
the Miss America competition,
her moment in the national
spotlight.
“Sometimes, I feel like I
live out of my car,” she laughed
during an interview in August.
The last several weeks have
involved multiple trips between
Portland and Astoria for fi nal
touches on hair coloring, mock
judge panels and appearing at
events.
Stepping into the spotlight
and traveling around the coun-
try means that Miss Oregon
has to give up some freedoms .
The main sacrifi ce being her
social time with friends . But
for Mather, the dream of com-
peting at the national level is
worth it.
“You learn who your real
friends are when they realize
you’re busy all the time,” she
said.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Alexis Mather performs opera during the Miss Oregon
pageant.
Musical interlude
Practicing singing has also
taken up a large part of the
time in between the contests.
“I’ll go to an event not
expecting to sing and they’ll
ask me if I can do the national
anthem,” Mather said.
Singing has been Mather’s
stage talent since she began
competing . For tuneups, she
has performed at Volcanoes
minor league baseball games
in Salem and at the Regatta
Queen coronation in August .
Mather will perform “The
Queen of the Night,” a chal-
lenging German opera from
the Mozart aria “The Magic
Flute ” at Miss America.
For training, she has also
met with Miss America 2002
Katie Harman Ebner. The for-
mer Miss Oregon and now
professional performer and
voice coach also sang opera
when she won the national
title . “What makes opera dif-
ferent than other vocal art is
it takes kinesthetic to create a
certain pitch,” Ebner said .
“This is a very special-
ized job that Alexis really
understands. ”
No matter the outcome
in New Jersey — where the
fi nals are Sunday — Mather
will take a year off from Port-
land State University where
she is majoring in psychol-
ogy. She will continue to
make appearances around the
state and possibly internation-
ally. Miss Oregon 2015 Ali
Wallace visited Japan during
her year as a dignitary to pro-
mote Oregon’s agricultural
products.
Mather has had her sights
set on this crown since she
went to her fi rst Miss Ore-
gon contest at 10 years old.
She then began to compete
in pageants like Miss Clat-
sop County and the Regatta
Court. She has not looked
back since.
“This is a time for me to
compete. I’ll have the rest of
my life afterwards to hang out
with my friends,” she said.
Ugly is good
Blackfoot, Idaho, produce
farmer Richard Johnson has
found the public is far more
accepting of ugly produce
if it comes from a familiar,
local source. At farmers’ mar-
kets, Johnson mixes ugly pro-
duce with his top-quality fruits
and vegetables and offers no
discount.
Most of it sells, and he
donates anything left over to
the local food bank.
Johnson said when grocers
buy produce, they may turn
away as much as 40 percent
of a farmer’s production for
purely cosmetic reasons.
“Too much of our food we
don’t use to its full potential
because of some standards that
say, ‘This is Grade-A quality,’”
Johnson said.
Some ugly food sellers go
straight where they are needed
most.
In Cleveland, wholesale
produce suppliers Ashley and
Andy Weingart have con-
tracted with a courier service
to deliver ugly fruits and vege-
tables to households in a desig-
nated food desert. They mark
down the produce by about
40 percent, but they empha-
size they couldn’t sell it oth-
erwise, and the program fi lls a
community service, providing
fresh produce to low-income
households.
The ugly food deliveries
started in May and now reach
about two dozen customers.
Andy Weingart anticipates
working with farmers to har-
vest more of their ugly crops
as demand grows.
“The idea is to reach out
to some growers so instead
of plowing those (ugly) items
in the fi eld, to convince them
there is still demand for those
items,” Andy Weingart said.
“It’s a shame so much of our
business has to be No. 1 qual-
ity, or top-shelf.”
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