CCTV9英语新闻：Supermarkets to donate unsold food in Mexico

An organization in Mexico called Food for Everyone has opened a food bank that feeds 32,000 people a week in Mexico City. The donated food is from supermarkets that would otherwise go to waste. 

 

After being fired from her job, Juana Flores Roman has been living on the streets with her daughter and three grand children. Many times she and her family would go hungry for days.

 

But since she started going to a non-profit food bank that provides donated food from supermarkets that would otherwise go to waste, it has given a level of security to her family.

 

"It helps a lot, because before school starts we bring the kids here so they are fed, which means they are not hungry when they go to school," said a homeless woman Juana Flores Roman. 

 

The Food for Everyone organization, has been praised for working with big supermarket chains to rescue unspoiled food in a country with one of the highest poverty rates in the world.

 

On average, Food for everyone feeds 32,000 people a week in Mexico City. Still, the nonprofit group believes it is not enough.

 

Mariana Jiménez Cárdenas is a nutritionist and coordinator of the program.

 

"In Mexico right now, 31,000 tons of food is thrown away a year and from that only one percent is rescued. This is in a place where 51 million Mexicans are living in poverty, in which 28 million don't have access to food; if we rescued all of that food we would be able to feed the whole country," said Mariana Jiménez Cárdenas.

 

Food for Everyone is pushing for the government to do more. The organization is supporting a bill that would ban all supermarket chains from throwing away or destroying unsold food.