Mega-Events Are Warming Up Conversations on Food Waste

Mega-events offer the chance to catapult issues to national consciousness, intercepting a vast and rapt audience. This summer, cities hosting blockbuster gatherings—from the political conventions to the Olympic Games—are vaulting hunger and food waste into the spotlight.

Plate of the Union, a new collaborative advocating for food and farms, hitched a ride to the RNC publicity train in Cleveland this week, leveraging the event as a platform to broadcast their message about focusing federal attention on America’s food system. They’re off to Philadelphia for next week’s Democratic National Convention, where they’re co-sponsoring a food truck festival and soliciting signatures for a petition calling on politicians to curb subsidies for unhealthy food and ban antibiotic usage in livestock.