PBS高端访谈:请不要浪费粮食（在线收听）

JUDY WOODRUFF: Believe it or not, Americans altogether throw away about 150,000 tons of food every day. That is about one pound of food per person. It is a staggering figure, considering nearly 13 percent of this country's population experiences food insecurity. As Cristina Quinn from PBS station WGBH reports, Boston-area college students are trying to help close the food insecurity gap.

CRISTINA QUINN: Lunch just ended inside Harvard's Annenberg Hall. And there's still a lot of food left, but these students are making sure none of it will go to waste. Each week, they help package 1,200 pounds of leftovers into microwaveable frozen meals. Environmental studies major Motoy Kuno-Lewis got involved because decaying food creates methane gas, one of the leading causes of climate change. But, of course, there's another reason to do this.

MOTOY KUNO-LEWIS, Student: Food insecurity is an issue, and it's a very pertinent issue even in an area like Cambridge.

CRISTINA QUINN: The meals are delivered to other schools, like MassBay Community College in Wellesley, where over half the school's population experiences some form of food insecurity.

MAXWELL MORRONGIELLO, Student: So that could mean, you know, people aren't getting enough, simply aren't able to afford food. That could mean that people aren't able to afford healthy foods.

CRISTINA QUINN: Maxwell Morrongiello is on the student government's Food Insecurity Committee, and he also grabs a meal for himself a couple times a month.

MAXWELL MORRONGIELLO: So, just in terms of me being able to make ends meet, it's been helpful. I haven't really suffered from hunger. There's people here who are hungry. And you know that they really don't have access to food at all. And it's very important that they have access to that.

CRISTINA QUINN: Students can swing by four days a week and pick up frozen meals free of charge, no questions asked. Food for Free, a food rescue group based in Cambridge, launched this program. Executive director Sasha Purpura hopes to make it a model other schools and companies will adopt.

SASHA PURPURA, Executive Director, Food for Free: So this is something that a university in Western Mass., in Worcester, a corporation could do. It enables them not only to stop throwing out perfectly good food. It lets them engage their student population, their employee population in group volunteering activities, giving back to their community.

CRISTINA QUINN: Tufts University students also package meals and are among a dozen organizations in the Boston area that donate their unserved food, including Brigham and Women's Hospital. This allows Food for Free to churn out over 1,000 meals a week. They deliver these meals to Bunker Hill and North Shore community colleges, in addition to some elementary schools and food pantries. But there's more work to do.

SASHA PURPURA: It's insane. We are throwing away tremendous amounts of food every day. And there are people next door a block away that aren't getting enough food.

CRISTINA QUINN: A hunger gap that these folks are helping to close. For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Cristina Quinn in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Love to hear these stories.

朱迪·伍德拉夫：大家可能难以置信——美国人每天浪费近15万吨粮食。也就相当于每个人浪费了1磅粮食。这个数字十分惊人，毕竟美国近13%的人口都感受到了粮食危机的存在。根据PBS驻波士顿公共电视台记者克里斯蒂娜·奎恩，波斯顿地区的大学生正在努力助力减少粮食不安全的差距。

克里斯蒂娜·奎恩：安娜伯格大厅学生食堂的午餐时段刚过。还剩下了很多食物，不过哈佛大学的学生们正在着力确保这些餐食不会浪费。每周，这些学生都会帮忙打包1200磅剩饭剩菜到微波炉可加热的餐盒中冷冻。环境研究专业的路易斯参加了这项行动中，因为腐烂的食物会产生甲烷气体，而甲烷又是气候变化的首要原因之一。不过，他做这件事当然还有另一个原因。

路易斯，学生：粮食危机是一个问题，与大家密切相关，就连坎布里奇这样的区域也不例外。

克里斯蒂娜·奎恩：这些餐食会送往其他学校，比如韦尔斯利的马萨诸塞州湾社区学院。该学院半数以上的师生都感受到了不同程度的粮食危机。

麦克斯韦，学生：所以，也就是说，大家能获得的粮食不够充足，只是因为买不起。这也意味着人们买不起健康的食物。

克里斯蒂娜·奎恩：麦克斯韦在学生会的粮食危机委员会，就连他自己每个月也会有那么几次随便对付一口的时候。

麦克斯韦：所以，对于我这样收支可以相抵的人来说，是有用的。我没有真正地挨饿，但有些人就要饿肚子。这些人是真的没有东西可以吃。让大家有东西可吃是很重要的一件事。

克里斯蒂娜·奎恩：每周，学生们靠免费获取的冷冻餐食就能挨过4天，不会有人有什么问题。“免费食物”是坎布里奇的一家粮食援助组织。这个项目也是该组织发起的。执行理事萨沙·普尔普拉希望这个项目能成为一个典型，供其他学校和公司采纳。

萨沙·普尔普拉，“免费食物”执行理事：这件事是马萨诸塞州西部和伍斯特的大学都能做到的，也是一家公司能做到的。这让他们不仅不再扔掉精美的食物。也让他们通过参加团体志愿活动的方式与学生、雇员接触，回报各社群。

克里斯蒂娜·奎恩：塔夫斯大学的学生也打包了餐食，并和波士顿地区的一些组织一起捐赠了多余的粮食，包括布莱根妇女医院。大家的举动让“免费粮食”可以每周产生1000多份餐食。大家将这些餐食送往邦克山和北海岸的各所大学中。此外还送到了一些小学和食品储藏室。但还需要做更多。

萨沙·普尔普拉：简直疯了，我们每天要扔掉那么多食物。而隔壁一个街区的很多人还没有足够的粮食。

克里斯蒂娜·奎恩：很多人都在帮忙弥补这个粮食缺口。感谢收听克里斯蒂娜·奎恩从马萨诸塞州坎布里奇发回的PBS报道。

朱迪·伍德拉夫：感谢奎恩的报道。