Food for thought of the week.

If there is one thing I can mention that makes me sad about Canada, and even while I was in the States before, is the amount of food that gets wasted. This goes for all countries, really. I have met so many people here who would directly say no to food because they don’t like it. There is not a day in a food court here where I don’t see at least 1 person throwing out food that they couldn’t finish. I see so many tiktoks of people wasting food just to go viral—wasting cakes, having food fights, there was even this one tiktok of a female in an Asian hotel who was in quarantine after travel, and she was poorly criticising the food being served because it was all fish, and she didn’t like fish. Joseph, having studied and worked in culinary, has mentioned to me that almost everyday the common practice is to just throw away good food because there’s no place for it anymore.

It was definitely a culture shock. And the saddest part is, most people don’t even realize how sad this actually is.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an environmentalist and I also have my own favorite foods—but I assure you, my parents taught us to eat whatever is presented in front of us.

And being in Manila for four years? Man, I can’t even tell you how many people I’ve seen dig through trash just to find food.

So yes, snarky remarks like “finishing my food won’t make a difference to the hungry people in Africa” or “ewww I don’t like that food, give me something else” get to me. I take it personally. I will immediately dislike your actions and judge you. Because I’ve seen people do ‘pagpag’— a Filipino term for mixing leftovers they find from garbage to create a new dish to have something to eat. I’ve seen hungry, 5-year old kids beg for food. I’ve met people who tell me they haven’t even had lobster or turkey or even roasted chicken their entire lives. I have met people who don’t even know what a microwave is.

Please value your food. It is holy. Why value food? Because it’s manners, because it’s polite, because it is the decent thing to do, and because finishing what is on your plate is a small act of showing that you are grateful for having food to eat in the first place. This is one Filipino cultural norm that I am proud of, and I hope people learn from it.