Cider For Good
When you travel through the lush valleys of the Pacific Northwest, where bountiful orchards and farms full of food dot the landscape, it's hard to understand how so many children go to bed hungry. The statistics are jarring: 1 in 8 children in Oregon face food insecurity. And so much food is wasted! According to Feeding America, a staggering 119 billion pounds of food is wasted in the United States each year. That’s the equivalent of you and everyone else in the country throwing away 925 apples each year. Shockingly, nearly 40% of all food in America ends up in the landfill.
As one of the state’s largest cider makers, we believe in using Portland Cider Co. as a force for good. By working together with the Portland community, we have an even greater impact—and our annual Fruit Forward Drive and the resulting Community Cider bring us all together to fight food insecurity and waste. We collect your unwanted apples and pears that would otherwise go to waste, make them into a hyperlocal cider, and sell it to raise funds for Hunger Free Schools.
According to the Oregon Wasted Food Study, the average Oregon household discards 6.3 pounds of food per week. And the average American family of four wastes approximately $1,600 per year in produce alone. Imagine if that food, or those dollars, instead went directly to people struggling to find their next meal.
The environmental consequences of food waste are equally dire. According to Recycle Track Systems, food waste contributes to a staggering 11% of the world's emissions, exacerbating global warming. This translates to the equivalent of 32.6 million cars' worth of greenhouse gas emissions produced by the lost or wasted food in the U.S. alone.
These are big problems, and fixing them permanently will require a big solution. It can feel overwhelming, but we’re better together. We’re collecting your apples and pears every Saturday in September, and would love to see you at our pressing party on September 30th.
With our community’s help, through donations of fruit and buying our Community Cider — or giving directly to Partners For a Hunger-Free Oregon — we can make headway against hunger in Oregon, one apple at a time.