VOA慢速英语--援助小组将剩饭带去给饥饿的人们

Group Uses Leftover¹ Food to Feed the Hungry

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

Every year around the world, humans waste an estimated 1.3 billion tons of food.

This happens even though many people go hungry. Some food aid groups say that in the United States alone, as many as 41 million people go hungry every day.

So, some people have made it their life’s work to connect the two: claiming food before it goes to waste and then giving it to people who are hungry.

One of those people is Brett Myers. In 2011, Myers started Nourish Now, a food recovery and food bank in the U.S. state of Maryland. This non-profit organization collects food and then gives it to the poor and organizations that support them.

"Nourish Now is a food recovery-based food bank that recovers food from restaurants, catering³ companies, grocery stores, hotels, farms and more. And then donates that food directly to families in need, kids in need at local schools."

Nourish Now receives food donations from 160 corporations and organizations. Each month, it recovers more than 20,000 kilograms of food and serves 700 needy⁴ families, schools and social organizations. Every day, staff and volunteers repackage the donations and distribute them to recipients⁶.

A woman named Rhoda is one of the recipients. She describes the quality of the food delivered to her family by Nourish Now.

"It consists of fresh food, fruits and vegetables. You will get bread. Sometimes you get dairy products such as yogurt or milk. And you will get some meat items also. And if you get lucky you might get cooked food, or prepared salads, and stuff like that."

The supplies can feed a family for five days. Each recipient⁵ is eligible⁷ to receive food every 30 days. And the packages are made to fit the dietary needs of each family.

One mother and a customer of Nourish Now explains how the food donations are helping⁸ her family.

"We sleep better, we eat better, the kids do better in school. They are eating vegetables that they would not normally get to eat and they are very much healthier now. One child had high blood pressure, not anymore. We are eating fresh fruits and vegetables now."

Besides families, the organization also donates small meals called snacks to several nearby schools and social organizations.

Nourish Now has grown considerably⁹ since it opened. The organization now has 12 employees and 68 volunteers. Brenda is one of them. Part of her job as a volunteer is to make sure that none of the food goes to waste.

"In the morning, I make sure that all the things that came late yesterday, get put away so that we use that last, and we used the things that came the day before first, so that we're always giving fresh food and we're not throwing out anything."

Nourish Now is based just outside of Washington, DC. So the founder¹⁰ says that the last government shutdown increased the number of Nourish Now recipients.

"Literally¹¹ every day the government is shut down, we get more calls."

The organization even held a shutdown dinner attended by more than 300 federal workers and families.

And that’s the Health & Lifestyle report.

I’m Anna Matteo.

Words in This Story

nourish – v. to provide (someone or something) with food and other things that are needed to live, be healthy, etc.

distribute – v. to give out or deliver especially to members of a group

cater² – v. to provide a supply of food

repackage – v. to package again or anew

recipient – n. one that receives

eligible – adj. qualified¹² to participate or be chosen

dietary / diet – adj. the kinds and amounts of food available to or eaten by an individual, group, or population

volunteer – n. a person who does work without getting paid to do it

1 leftover   

n.剩货，残留物，剩饭；adj.残余的

参考例句：

• These narrow roads are a leftover from the days of horse-drawn carriages.这些小道是从马车时代沿用下来的。
• Wonder if that bakery lets us take leftover home.不知道那家糕饼店会不会让我们把卖剩的带回家。

2 cater   

vi.(for/to)满足，迎合；(for)提供饮食及服务

参考例句：

• I expect he will be able to cater for your particular needs.我预计他能满足你的特殊需要。
• Most schools cater for children of different abilities.大多数学校能够满足具有不同天资的儿童的需要。

3 catering   

n. 给养

参考例句：

• Most of our work now involves catering for weddings. 我们现在的工作多半是承办婚宴。
• Who did the catering for your son's wedding? 你儿子的婚宴是由谁承办的？

4 needy   

adj.贫穷的，贫困的，生活艰苦的

参考例句：

• Although he was poor,he was quite generous to his needy friends.他虽穷，但对贫苦的朋友很慷慨。
• They awarded scholarships to needy students.他们给贫苦学生颁发奖学金。

5 recipient   

a.接受的,感受性强的 n.接受者,感受者,容器

参考例句：

• Please check that you have a valid email certificate for each recipient. 请检查是否对每个接收者都有有效的电子邮件证书。
• Colombia is the biggest U . S aid recipient in Latin America. 哥伦比亚是美国在拉丁美洲最大的援助对象。

6 recipients   

adj.接受的；受领的；容纳的；愿意接受的n.收件人；接受者；受领者；接受器

参考例句：

• The recipients of the prizes had their names printed in the paper. 获奖者的姓名登在报上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The recipients of prizes had their names printed in the paper. 获奖者名单登在报上。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

7 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

8 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

9 considerably   

adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上

参考例句：

• The economic situation has changed considerably.经济形势已发生了相当大的变化。
• The gap has narrowed considerably.分歧大大缩小了。

10 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

11 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

12 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。