How much does an average person eat during the holidays? Think about it.
A person will usually have supper with both sets of in-laws, as well as with kids, and with friends and neighbours too.
The average household probably attends a minimum of two Christmas dinners a season, and these dinners are usually more appropriately called feasts.
During the Christmas season, Canadians spend approximately $2.8 billion on festive food, and will waste roughly a quarter to a third, according to a national survey commissioned by food waste disposer maker, InSinkErator.
?That is approximately $600 million worth of food needlessly going from a household plate to the garbage, in one season.
With the economic future looking more and more uncertain, and it becoming harder to put food on the table for more and more people, why do people keep buying so much food over the holiday season.
In reality, approximately 25 percent of this food is going to go to waste.
According to guygoesgreen.com, Canadians produce twice as much food as needed per person.
If only 25 percent of the wasted $600 million was recovered, entire nations could go with food.
The country would also be able to reassure the Food Banks that they would have more than enough to feed the homeless and less fortunate members of society.
According to www.rdn.com, in 2001, Canadians spent more than $16 billion on gifts alone. That works out to approximately $740 per person for gifts.
It is no secret that Christmas has become a big commercial affair, so much so that without it large portions of the economy may not be able to function under their current profit models.
So the question is; why does everybody complain about the commercialism of Christmas without doing anything to change it.
A person just can’t suddenly stop giving gifts under the penalty of being labeled cheap.
To abruptly change the way a person goes about celebrating and dealing with Christmas can not only be a social strain, but also an emotional detriment.
Although, there are a few possible ways of dealing with the wasteful nature and commercialism of Christmas that will save money and not do anybody any less harm.
When a person is buying their food for Christmas, for their big feast, once at the checkout line, do one of two things.
Take a quarter of the items in the cart and put them back, cause as seen, nobody is going to miss them anyway or buy them but stick them in a food bank box, where they would do better good than being placed, unused, in the garbage can.