Letter | Americans waste ungodly amount of food while many in Myrtle Beach go hungry

Re: Homelessness in Myrtle Beach, Sunday's edition, April 19, 2015

I'm not amazed by the number of homeless we have in Horry County, or in our country for that matter. What saddens me is that these people, who may or may not have the ability to earn a living, rent a room, or have friends or family who can help them, go hungry when it's been proven that Americans waste approximately one-third of what they purchase.

Have you been at a restaurant and been given a basket of rolls, and maybe you eat just one? What happens to the rest? They get tossed out.

What about the local doughnut shops where at the end of the day they are not allowed to give away any food but are required to throw it out?

What about every fast-food chain that throws away tons of french fries?

I could go on, but the reality to me is in this day and age, no one should go hungry and no one should have to dig through a trash can to find food when we're throwing out good, quality food every day.

No need to remind me about the legal issues that most restaurants would face if someone ate something and got sick and decided to sue them. I completely get that, but that still doesn't account for so much food being wasted while many people (children and adults) go hungry.

Here's my suggestion:

Put your throw-away items in a clean bag and sit it by the Dumpster and let those who need it know it's there for the taking; no questions asked, no legal issues allowed.

The writer lives in Conway.

This story was originally published April 20, 2015 at 2:54 PM with the headline "Letter | Americans waste ungodly amount of food while many in Myrtle Beach go hungry."