Sea-Tac taking unique approach to feeding the hungry
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SEATAC, Wash. -- The convenience of grabbing airport food on the fly results in tons of leftovers landing in the trash, but Sea-Tac Airport officials are helping pioneer a unique program to recycle some of that food.
At the airport, it's often easier and faster for travelers to grab food on the run.
"It's quick, it's tasty," said traveler Rebecca Johnson. "In between flights you can have your lunch, then get on the plane."
But when 100,000 passengers a day take off from Sea-Tac, a lot of leftovers get left behind.
Pizza boxes, hamburgers, and an assortment of other half-eaten foods all end up in the bowels of the airport, where some 60,000 pounds of waste a month is recycled into compost.
But another 2,000 pounds is recycled a different way. Hidden from all the traffic and security lines, volunteer Otto Weiland wheels his cart through the airport's back door, gathering unwanted prepackaged food from vendors.
Those meals end up at the Des Moines Food Bank, where they're handed out to those in need.
Sea-Tac vendors now donate about 385 meals each week to the food bank, and that's food that likely would have been thrown away before.
Stacy Fox helped implement the airport's donation program.
"We're one of the few airports that have a type of program like this, one of the few in the whole country," Fox said.
Across the board, the Port of Seattle says it recycles 30 percent of all its waste.
At the airport, it's often easier and faster for travelers to grab food on the run.
"It's quick, it's tasty," said traveler Rebecca Johnson. "In between flights you can have your lunch, then get on the plane."
But when 100,000 passengers a day take off from Sea-Tac, a lot of leftovers get left behind.
Pizza boxes, hamburgers, and an assortment of other half-eaten foods all end up in the bowels of the airport, where some 60,000 pounds of waste a month is recycled into compost.
But another 2,000 pounds is recycled a different way. Hidden from all the traffic and security lines, volunteer Otto Weiland wheels his cart through the airport's back door, gathering unwanted prepackaged food from vendors.
Those meals end up at the Des Moines Food Bank, where they're handed out to those in need.
Sea-Tac vendors now donate about 385 meals each week to the food bank, and that's food that likely would have been thrown away before.
Stacy Fox helped implement the airport's donation program.
"We're one of the few airports that have a type of program like this, one of the few in the whole country," Fox said.
Across the board, the Port of Seattle says it recycles 30 percent of all its waste.
@hungerfighters http://t.co/3WUSVmErEB
Good use of the resources. Mom was a director of a local food bank for 15 years and she always hoped that the food stamp program would be changed so that all the money went to the food banks where they can get the bulk foods much cheaper than retail customers can. That way the EBT money would easily go 3 times as far as it does now. Plus they would be carrying all the junk food that people waste their food stamp money on.
I thought they might be selling copper wire...