After speaking to my friend from Toronto, she explained to be about The Northeast Blackout of 2003. It was a massive widespread power outage that occurred throughout parts of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Ontario, Canada on Thursday, August 14, 2003, at approximately 4:15 p.m. EDT (20:15 UTC). At the time, it was the most widespread electrical blackout in history. The blackout affected an estimated 10 million people in Ontario and 45 million people in eight U.S. states.

“A few years ago we had a city-wide blackout that lasted two or three days.  There was no electricity, they had to give food away at the stores because it was going off. People who were neighbours for several years got together in their backyards and shared dinner!  It was amazing. I think this sort of thing should happen once a year on purpose!  We could all get together with a common thread.  Not to mention, it saves so much on the environment.”

If you think about the amount of food you waste, it could be easily shared or reused again, for example as compost heaps. The Ontario blackout forced people to share food, and while not new, food sharing should be publicised a lot more in my opinion. Maybe an ‘organised’ blackout could be arranged monthly, where people have to switch off their fridges in their communities and get together to share all the food.

Brands such as Pret A Manger have already tapped into food sharing for good causes with their Pret Charity Run scheme. They distribute uneaten food at the end of the day from all of their London stores to homeless people around the capital. Over 12,000 meals are distributed every week.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003

http://www.pret.com/about/charities.htm