Kiko's Food News, 12.2.11

Did you know the economic recession has led to an increase in the number of SF residents using food stamps each month from 29,008 in 2008 to 44,185 in 2010? This Bay Guardian story profiles the work of Food Guardians in increasing food access and awareness of healthy food for tens of thousands of San Franciscans in chronically poor health: (full story)

And you know I can’t resist a holiday food waste alert: Americans generate an extra 5 million tons of household waste each year between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, including three times as much food waste as at other times of the year. The Worldwatch Institute offers 10 simple steps we can take to make this season less wasteful (such as avoiding the tendency to unnecessarily stuff guests when hosting!) 

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We’ll have to be gracious on our own soon, as Café Gratitudes and Gracias Madre are closing their doors due to lawsuits from former employees: (full story)

An unlikely place to expose injustices faced by lunch ladies, a food network show highlighted these low-level school employees who cook daily in school cafeterias; one said she and her colleagues are held in such low regard that they’re not even allowed in the teacher’s lounge at the schools they serve: (full story) 
This humorously shocking infographic compares Walmart’s scale in sales, land use, and manpower in relation to other retailers, international GDP’s, and armies: (full story)

As if we need more reason to put salad bars in schools, a CDC report suggests that in 2010, about one in four high school students ate fruit less than once a day, and one in three ate vegetables once or less a day: (full story)

An interesting new small business concept for wine tasting: TastingRoom.com “reformats” wines from their original retail packaging into 50- and 100-milliliter, single-serving bottles. (full story)

Eat like a food expert: here’s a list of 7 foods they avoid, including corn fed beef and conventionally grown potatoes: (full story)