Readers of The Plate are no strangers to the colossal problems of food waste and food loss: the countless crates of imperfect, but perfectly edible, produce dumped at the U.S.-Mexico border; the massive amount of food purchased by restaurants that is never served; the meats and produce that go to waste due to lack of proper cooling in many parts of the world, and the forgotten items moldering in countless refrigerators in others.

Across the globe, there are efforts large (the new Rockefeller Foundation initiative) and small (communities that have enlisted cab drivers to transport restaurant excess to the hungry) designed to tackle different facets of this problem. And here at National Geographic, we’ve worked