Pakistanis are by nature known to spend prodigally on different get togethers, especially at weddings. Even the middle-class family take out their life’s savings and spend liberally on their children’s weddings.

Since society has made these occasions a source of showing social status and spend ostentatiously on weddings, and as a consequence, scads of food end up being wasted.

We all are well aware of the colossal wastage of food at weddings. It’s an eye-opener for everybody, but still, none of us pays attention. The way people fill their plates with food items seems as if there would be no food the next day.

They like to taste everything and blatantly express dissatisfaction over the taste and annoyance about the service, without even knowing the burden that the family has to face to present everything well enough to satisfy the guests.

And because we can’t finish all that we have piled on our plates, heaps of excess food are trashed all because of us. We should know that meat, sugar, and vegetable rates are going sky-high day by day, but we still see the wastage of food. It’s painful to know that there is a large number of people who barely manage a single meal a day.

We love going to parties and restaurants, but have no idea about how much food gets wasted there. And do we even realise how many poor kids scan the garbage bin to find something to eat? I guess very few people might think about it.

I’m so surprised to say that so many children suffer from malnutrition and hunger, so it’s better to give the leftovers to the poor or an orphanage because someone out there is dying for the food we are throwing away.

Published in Dawn, Young World, May 13th, 2021