Syed Ahsan Ali
In our beloved country, how many times have we noticed small, poor kids scanning piles of garbage to get something to eat. These are usually the places where animals also compete for the same food source.
Now that above photo has got all your attention I want to mention a big source of food wasting in Pakistan. That is wedding dinners. These days I am involved in arranging for a wedding dinner in the family for a modest gathering on 250 to 300 guests. This opportunity has provided me the first hand knowledge of how to set a wedding dinner menu and how much extra food has to be cooked knowing in advance that a big portion of it will be wasted. It hurts.
As we all know that around this time of the year many marriages take place. Marriage lawns and gardens, bridal wear, salons, beauty parlors, and lavish dinners are must if you want to get married with holding your head high in the society. As they said there is no easy way out. You have to attire properly, shop generously, and serve graciously to show that you win that rat race which is on and which is getting more hectic as we are climbing ladders of success and progress.
I have been getting all sorts of input about what is the most popular item when it comes to pleasing your respected guests. The prevailing opinion is that you have to feed them well if you want to be remembered as good hosts in the years down the line. During this exercise of picking the best food available at the price we can afford I have painfully came across the trend of wasting food. The way food is eaten and wasted in our weddings is an eye opener because extra food has to be prepared to make sure every one is well fed inspite of their expected wastage.
If ice-cream is the only dessert in the menu then no one would take one scoop or stop at that. Same is the case with cold drinks. They say more is good. I asked one caterer what is the preferred cold drink or juice in the gatherings? He smiled and replied sahib whatever you like but kindly don’t go for all varieties because as you know people will like to taste everything and they would waste tremendously and you would feel irritated after seeing half-full bottles at the end of the ceremony.
If you ever get a chance to go and look into the kitchens of our marriage halls you will be pained to see piles and piles of dishes of wasted Biryani, dripping qormas and barely touched desserts going in to the dustbin. Adding to this is the disturbing trend of preparing 15, 20 or even 25 dishes for a wedding dinner. Consequently people love to taste everything and in that process leave most of the dishes wasted because either they don’t like it or something else catches their attention. I guess in our lives, we have all been witness to guests who like to get their plates full as if they will never get a chance to eat again.
For the serving family, it becomes all too horrible if you think about the rising prices of food items. Ghee, meat and vegetables are touching new record levels every new day and still we see this kind of mismanagement and wastage of food.
We need to understand that preventing wastage of any commodity whether it is food, water, petrol, gas or anything else can help us in delivering better world to our future generations. A begining can be made by not wasting food in wedding dinners.
Certainly, food wastage is a crime no law can stop. It can perhaps be minimized only to some extent through spreading awareness. In weddings, food left out in the utensils after serving guests and servants, can be saved from getting wasted by sending it out to several charity organization especially Edhis who have fairly large infrastructure to handle it but the left overs as shown in the picture, can and should be channelised through ‘waste management’ by the city governments.
Weddings are not the only source of creating food wastage, as big hotels and restaurants are no less, difference is that they charge what they serve.
Other wastages at the wedding ceremonies by rich and the poor have their own dimensions. Rich does it for showing of his prestige, name and honor and the poor does it under cultural compulsion. Positive aspect of this waste is the growth of industry and the craftsmen connected to this trade.
Besides, consumerism has become a big part of global economics, we need to find ways and means to produce more to cover the yawning gap between supply and demand, savings alone cannot make a difference.
I disagree that the solution to this problem is to enact new laws or reinstate old ones. As a couple of you pointed out “Don
I remember seeing some interview on PTV about two years ago of some NGO from Karachi that collected wasted food from marriage areas and distribute them in needy people.
It was a wonderful thought, wonder how are those people doing now. From the looks of it, the guy was pretty happy at their performance!!!
Make the food extra spicy and provide a lot of cold water. At the first couple of bites, they’ll seek water and fill themselves quickly :)
I know it might not be seen as the best mehmaan-nawaazi, but you know it would solve some of the problem. If you have thick skin and can handle their critical remarks for years afterwards, that is!
Seriously, though, it might make sense to post in the dining tent a phrase from the Holy Quran Kuloo Washraboo Wa Laa Tusrifoo – the meaning of Israaf includes wastage. We sometimes ignore our own teachings.
What beautiful little boys, trying to find a morsel among rotten fruits. That is so sad. I hope good fortune enters their lives soon.