More than a third of food grown in the U.S. goes uneaten, and that percentage has increased in the past five years. Much of that food ends up in landfills, where it decomposes, creating a potent gas that contributes to global warming.

A company based in Denmark has spent the past eight years working to bring that percentage down by helping restaurants sell food cheaply.

Too Good To Go works with businesses to sell their end-of-day leftovers for 60%-80% off. By matching hungry, cost-conscious customers with surplus food, the app's creators say they minimize waste, one bag of saved food at a time.

The app started in Denmark in 2015. Today there are participating stores in 17 countries and more than a dozen U.S. cities including New York, Phoenix and Seattle. Several cities including Santa Barbara, Minneapolis and Atlanta just started participating this year. The company claims Los Angeles is its most successful city yet. Next, it's headed to cities in the southeast.

While the fight over federal spending is playing out on Capitol Hill, the effects of a potential government shutdown would be felt far beyond it.

House Republicans are struggling to pass the spending measures needed to keep the federal government open past Saturday. A pause on government services would have implications for everything from air travel to public health to national parks to food assistance.

The Biden administration is warning that a shutdown would put vital nutrition assistance at risk for the nearly seven million people who rely on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

The idea of food as medicine dates back to the ancient Greek doctor Hippocrates, and a new study adds to the evidence that a diet full of fruits and vegetables can help improve heart health. The research comes amid an epidemic of diet-related disease, which competes with smoking as a leading cause of death.

Kelvin Beachum writes “Throughout my experience serving, I have learned that hunger is closely tied to poverty. It affects certain populations disproportionately, such as people of color and those who live in rural communities. Children who are hungry cannot learn properly in school and can suffer health repercussions into adulthood. Hunger hurts the economy and it is often intergenerational, meaning that some families are more likely to experience this vicious cycle repeatedly.

I have also learned that hunger is not inevitable. In a nation as wealthy as ours, it shouldn’t exist at all. We have the power to end hunger — if we set our minds to it. “

Grace Prentice’s SNAP benefits used to afford her a little extra breathing room. It wasn’t exactly easy to make ends meet for herself and her little dog, Jackson. But she was able to offset the cost of some of her medications. She had to make less frequent trips to the food pantry. She could splurge, just a little, the grocery store from time to time.

“It was like fresh fruits and vegetables. I’m able to get a piece of meat like chicken or hamburgers that I don’t usually get,” Prentice said.

Now, Prentice said she doesn’t get fresh produce unless a food pantry is giving it away.

In March, Prentice’s SNAP benefits were cut by a third. All 1.6 million Texas households participating in the program – representing about 3.5 million individual Texans — saw their SNAP benefits cut an average of $212.

“If I do it right, I can go for maybe a week — maybe,” Prentice said. “And then it’s hit or miss. I’ve gone hungry, and it’s not an easy thing.” Read more here.

Food impacts many aspects of life, and one of the most significant effects food (or lack thereof) has is on education.

Students who are inadequately fed don’t have the same learning capacity as those with a balanced and fruitful diet. In 2021, the USDA estimated that 10.2% of American students were “food insecure.” Plus, 3.8% (or 5.1 million households) experienced very low food security.

Brain Development

The first issue students deal with when facing food scarcity is that their brains don’t develop at optimal levels. Brain development begins soon after conception and determines a person’s functional ability, including social behavior, language development, decision-making skills, learning, and cognition.

Over 11% of the U.S. population — about one in nine people — lived below the federal poverty line in 2021. But Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond says neither that statistic, nor the federal poverty line itself, encapsulate the full picture of economic insecurity in America.

"There's plenty of poverty above the poverty line as a lived experience," Desmond says. "About one in three Americans live in a household that's making $55,000 or less, and many of those folks aren't officially considered poor. But what else do you call trying to raise three kids in Portland on $55,000?"

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