NPR recently ran a story on Sarah Ramirez who has changed occupations from Tulare County, California epidemiologist to fruit picker. Ramirez was born the child of farmworkers and grew up pursuing a different path, earning a PhD from Stanford. However, Ramirez began to notice the large amounts of excess crops in California’s Central Valley that went uneaten, due to the high standards of supermarkets and their patrons. Be Healthy Tulare was formed by Ramirez and her husband to harvest these unused crops and deliver them to food banks so that they didn’t go to waste, instead serving as food for those in need. The group also teaches cooking and nutrition classes. The article mentions it is estimated that 40% of food is thrown away in America. Many times hunger is not a matter of production but rather of distribution and it is reassuring to see folks like Ramirez and Be Healthy Tulare addressing this problem head on.
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