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'Life gave me pizza, so I made peace.'

For a fleeting moment leaving the chemotherapy treatment center, Josh Katrick forgot about the year he'd been having.

He'd just gotten an email telling him that — out of roughly 1,200 names — his was the one randomly selected from a raffle at Mario's Pizza in Northampton, Pennsylvania. A lot of free pizza was coming his way.

The family-owned local hot spot had held a promotion giving away two large pizzas and one two-liter beverage every month throughout 2017.

"I remember coming out of [the chemo treatment center] thinking, 'I just won pizzas for a year!'" Katrick told WFMZ-TV 69 News of that moment in early December. "'That's cool!'"

Photo via Mario's Pizza, used with permission.

For Katrick, the news came amid quite a surreal few months.

The 36-year-old learned he has colon cancer in July. He had surgery in August and has since completed seven of 12 rounds of chemotherapy, NBC 10 News reported.

Photo via Mario's Pizza, used with permission.

"It’s been a fast time," he told the outlet. "It still feels like the blink of an eye."

Most people would argue a guy like Katrick is more than deserving of a few free slices considering what he's been through lately.

Katrick, however, had other plans in mind.

Katrick asked Mario's — his favorite pizza joint in town — if his free pizza could be given to the Northampton Area Food Bank instead.

"I've been getting so much from family, friends — people I don't even know well — the last few months," he explained to WFMZ, that he didn't think a year's worth of free pizza should be spent on him.

GIF via WFMZ.

At first, Frank Grigoli, a manager and co-owner's son at Mario's, didn't know what to make of the request.

Before he knew Katrick wanted the pizza to be given to the food bank, Grigoli was a bit befuddled. Mario's has been in business 37 years, after all, and quality is baked into every bite — why would someone pass on a delicious free lunch?

After learning it was about helping Northampton's most vulnerable people, however, Grigoli says Katrick's request brought "tears of joy." "This guy has a big heart," he said.

Still, something was bothering him. "That night, I went to sleep and something didn’t feel right," Grigoli admits. The next day, he decided, "we’re gonna give [Katrick] a gift.”

Photo via Mario's Pizza, used with permission.

Inspired by Katrick's selfless deed, Mario's decided to give both Katrick and the food bank a free year of pizza.

"It's better to give than receive," saidGiuseppe Aiello, whose father, Giovanni, co-owns the restaurant. "Especially during this time of year — Christmas — it's a great time to think about that and see examples of it around town."

The food bank can choose between having either the same deal Katrick won or throwing a pizza party with the entire year's worth of food and drinks — 24 large pizzas complemented with 12 two-liters — all at once, Grigoli tells Upworthy. So all in all, Mario's is giving away 48 pies to very deserving recipients next year.

Photo via Mario's Pizza, used with permission.

Free pizzas aside, things are looking good for Katrick in 2017.

Feeling better with the holidays here, and more than halfway through his chemo treatments, Katrick is expected to make a full recovery, according to NBC 10 News.

Regardless of his prognosis, though, Katrick is someone who always wants to see the glass as half-full.

“The old attitude of, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade," he said. "Life gave me pizza, so I made peace.”

Watch WFMZ-TV 69 News' report on Katrick's story below:

When customers at one San Francisco grocery store went to the checkout one day, they were outraged. The cost of their groceries had increased astronomically.

Look, we've all cringed once or twice while the cashier rings up the fancy yogurt we decided to get last minute because "screw it, I wanna eat fancy yogurt," but this wasn't a few pennies or dollars here and there. This was $25 for a box of spinach and $40 for a loaf of bread and some cigarettes.

GIF via Tipping Point Community/YouTube.

The cost of their groceries had inflated. But why?

It was all part of a social experiment meant to show people what buying groceries is like for people living in poverty.

1 in 10 families in the Bay Area live on $24,300 or less per year, below the poverty line and well below the Bay Area average. The experiment was set up by Tipping Point Community, a poverty relief organization, which set up a register in a Nob Hill grocery store where customers checking out would be given "poverty line prices," or prices that were proportionally representative to living in poverty.

"If eggs cost $6 for someone living on the poverty line, or 1.4% of their weekly salary, the adjusted price would be $29.64 for someone living on the average San Francisco salary," TPC's website explains.

Imagine if your groceries, rent and college supplies were five times as expensive. For the 1 in 10 families living below the poverty line in the Bay Area, this is how it feels. Visit tippingpoint.org to calculate how expensive your basic needs would be if adjusted for #povertylineprices
A photo posted by Tipping Point Community (@tippingpoint) on Nov 17, 2016 at 1:26pm PST

Tipping Point also set up a website where anyone can plug in their annual salary and see what grocery shopping would be like if they lived in poverty.

While those skyrocketed prices were temporarily frustrating for the people trying to buy groceries, the sticker shock they experienced is one millions of Americans face every day.

In 2015, over 43 million people in the United States were living in poverty. That's down 1.2% from 2014 but is still a massive number. Sticker shock doesn't just affect people below the poverty line either. According to the Corporation for Enterprise Development, nearly half of all Americans are one financial shock — a job loss, a medical emergency, etc. — away from poverty. Feeling financial discomfort while you shop for basic needs is something that could happen to any of us.

The income gap between the rich and poor in the United States is ever-widening, and closing it would require landmark financial restructuring, or at least some out-of-the-box thinking.

If you had to pay $30 for cold medicine or $15 for a gallon of milk, you might be outraged like the folks in the video. Most of all though, you'd want to do something about it. You'd want somebody to recognize that it's an unfair burden on you and your family.

You'd want things to change.

Watch people react to poverty line prices here:

Family

15 delicious ways to reduce food waste.

True

I wouldn’t claim to be an environmental whiz kid, but I do the best I can.

I truly believe that even the smallest effort can make a huge difference. I read the numbers on the bottom of my plastic containers to make sure they can be recycled. I use empty bottles of wine to help water my plants — that’s really a win-win because I no longer have to remember to water them! But, I fall short in a few areas. I rarely finish a plate of food and have been guilty of tossing everything in my fridge in search of the one item that’s causing a funk.

Then I learned about food waste. And it’s no joke.

Food is the single largest contributor to landfills, and 40% of food in the U.S. is never eaten. That's a whole lot! But food waste isn't just about what winds up in our trash cans. Producing all of that wasted food uses over 20% of the U.S. supply of freshwater — that's more water than is used by California, Texas, and Ohio combined — and creates as much greenhouse gas emissions as 33 million passenger cars.

Trash on trash on trash. And it doesn't all have to be! Image via Petrr/Flickr.

And food is a tricky issue in general. At the same time all of this food is being wasted, there are so many places, in the U.S. and abroad, where families simply do not have access to the nutritious foods that are out there.

Given all this, it seemed worth taking a look at ways to reduce food waste — or, at the very least, our individual food waste. These tips aren't a cure-all, but doing just a little bit can help to make these very big issues just a bit smaller. Here are a few of my favorites.

First things first: In an ideal world, our food wouldn't go bad.

Sometimes we can’t avoid it. We put a pear at the bottom of a bowl, and by the time we get to it, it’s becoming pear cider. But that’s what refrigerators are for! Did you know that those drawers at the bottom serve a specific purpose? I didn’t. Turns out, it's called a crisper for a reason. Want to become an expert at storing your fruits and veggies? Here are a few tips:

Potatoes, onions, and tomatoes don't need to be kept in the fridge. It's actually better if they aren't.
Salad greens should be stored in bags filled with a little air and sealed tightly. As someone who tries to remove all air from ziplock bags, this was an interesting tip.
Not all fruits can be stored together: Avocados, bananas, and kiwis produce ethylene as they ripen, so they need to be separated from fruits like apples to prevent the latter from going bad.

Those two drawers? They aren't just for top shelf overflow. Image via LaraLove/Wikimedia Commons.

Now, if you have a few food items that are already past their prime, there’s still time! These recipes are for you.

Full disclosure: I tried a few of these myself, but most of the delicious goodness you’re about to see is courtesy of the DIY mavens online.

Bruised fruit just ... isn’t cute. But it’s still delicious.

Bananas look downright unappealing when they’re brown and spotty on the outside, but did you know that’s actually when they’re at the best for a few recipes?

I had a very unattractive banana lying around and decided to put it to good use.

Not looking so good, banana. Image by Mae Cromwell/Upworthy.

1. Meet banana fritters.

I made these myself. And they were delicious. Image by Mae Cromwell/Upworthy.

2. And banana bread is another great way to get rid of your spotted bananas!

Image via Jo del Corro/Flickr.

3. Do you have overripe peaches, strawberries, or really any fruit you find irresistible? Turn it into jam! It’s surprisingly easy.

These jars of home-canned peaches look SO good. Image via Rachel Tayse/Flickr.

4. Love breakfast foods? Your bruised fruit can play a role there, too. Those fruit-filled pancakes aren’t just for a fancy brunch. Smash your overripe fruit in a bowl, and make your own pancakes at home.

*Drooling.* Image via Matheus Swanson/Flickr.

5. And how about popsicles? Did you know you could make those with overripe fruit? Your bruised peaches never looked so good.

Image via Sameer Goyal/Flickr.

And then there’s stale bread — it still has its uses!

6. Confession: I’m not much of a bread eater. Too often, I’d buy a loaf of gluten-free bread, forget about it, and toss it. But now I know that dried out bread can be transformed and used for something I really do like: breading things! Fried catfish is going to be perfect from now on.

I'm absurdly proud of these bread crumbs! Image by Mae Cromwell/Upworthy.

7. And if you eat a lot of salads, spice them up with homemade croutons.

Croutons have never looked so good. Image via Tasha/Flickr.

A lot of us have fallen victim to wasting parts of a whole rotisserie chicken. But not anymore.

After that first meal, there’s often so much chicken left that next steps can be confusing. Do you eat the same meal for a few days or toss the leftovers? Do neither! There are tons of ways to reuse leftover chicken.

8. Tacos

A Taco Tuesday staple. Image via Larry Hoffman/Flickr.

9. Chicken salad

Image via Lara604/Flickr.

10. BBQ it! Yes, you can take the same chicken, slather some BBQ sauce all over it, and voilà! A new meal. You can eat it as-is or shred it and make a sandwich. The world is yours.

Mouth-watering leftovers. Image via jeffreyw/Flickr.

11. As we head into winter, you can't go wrong with some comforting chicken soup.

Perfect for a chilly day. Or any day, really. Image via Carol VanHook/Flickr.

12. And as a new West Coast resident, I can vouch for chicken quesadillas. Shred or chop up your leftovers and make them part of this meal. You won’t regret it.

Image via Andy Melton/Flickr.

And — this is mind-blowing — you can revive some of that produce you wrote off as goners. Yes, you read that right.

13. Carrots?

14. Lettuce?

15. Parsley?

As certain vegetables wilt and start to lose their texture, they can be revived with some good ol’ water. Seriously. This is like a magic trick that we can all pull off.

So, you get it: Food waste sucks, but there are (delicious) ways to contribute to the solution.

Try some of these tips at home, and post your own tips! You never know which one of your tips can save someone else a ton of time and money while helping us all to treat this planet a little bit better.

The secret to cutting global hunger rates around the world? Hello, ladies.

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There's a pretty simple way we could be feeding an additional 150 million hungry people around the world.

It's not through some super advanced technology or billion-dollar idea that someone just came up with. The answer has been right in front of us for a very long time:

‌Photo via Esther Havens/The Adventure Project. ‌

Women. Women farmers are a secret weapon to fighting hunger.

How do I know? Because they're already doing it!

Women produce half of all the food in the world – up to 80% in some countries. But most people wouldn't know it.

After all, a woman isn't the most common image that comes to mind when picturing a farmer.

Maybe it's time for it to be?

In the developing world, rural women farmers are the foundation of their local economies. Aside from being the primary caregivers of their children and in charge of domestic responsibilities, women also, on average, make up 43% of an area's agricultural labor force. Ladies get things done.

‌Photo via Esther Havens/The Adventure Project. ‌

Women farmers pull their weight – but they don't have the same access to the land, agricultural training, livestock, financial services, and equipment as men do.

Yields for women farmers are 20% to 30% lower than for men because they have less access to the services, tools, and information as their male counterparts. When it comes to owning land, women make up only 3% to 20% of all landholders, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.

The world could look so different if that wasn't the case.

‌Photo via Esther Havens/The Adventure Project. ‌

Sub-Saharan Africa is a perfect example of how empowering female farmers could create significant change.

Women make up nearly 50% of the agricultural labor force there, but the region also has the highest prevalence of hunger in the world. Increasing women's access to the agricultural tools they need would help them to be more productive, reduce hunger, and lift themselves out of poverty. Just look at Kenya.

When The Adventure Project worked with Kenyan women to provide access to better irrigation pumps, the increased productivity and income that resulted was astounding. Each farmer was able to grow enough to sell produce to 50 community members, and their increased earnings allowed them to send their children to school for the first time.

One irrigation pump was enough to lift a Kenyan family out of poverty and into the middle class. That's amazing.

‌Photo via Esther Havens/The Adventure Project. ‌

Unfortunately, there are still many areas where traditional laws and cultural norms get in the way of women farmers being able to reach their full potential. It's not uncommon for women to be forbidden to own and inherit land, obtain credit, or play such a large role in the field. Those limitations and, as a result, missed opportunities are exactly why gender equality is front and center in the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals.

If women farmers were simply given the same access to resources as men, the number of undernourished people could drop by 100 million to 150 million around the world.

That's like the population of Russia, people. That's a lot of mouths being fed that weren't before.

‌Photo via Esther Havens/The Adventure Project. ‌

Closing this gender gap would change the world by providing for more food where it's needed and improving global nutrition security — including in the United States.

The world misses out when women are held back. The data is there, and their impact is real. Women farmers just need an equal shot.

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Hunger is an often overlooked cause—and effect—of gender inequality - Upworthy ›

Heroes

A food bank volunteer and her coder friend figured out how to feed thousands of people.

True

Anyone can have a good idea, but it takes a special person to follow through. Maria Rose Belding is one of those people.

While volunteering at a food pantry, Maria Rose noticed that huge amounts of good food were being tossed out at the end of every day. The food pantry couldn’t share those resources with neighboring towns because — even in the internet age — it was incredibly difficult to get hold of the necessary people in order to do so. Maria Rose was only in the eighth grade, but this flawed system didn’t sit well with her.

Years later, she found herself in a position to do something about it. Take a look:

You see, we have enough food in this country to feed everyone. Still, there are about 49 million Americans who are food insecure.

"If we had a crisis that was affecting one in six Americans, that was strongly associated with not finishing high school, with not going to college. That was strongly associated with bad health outcomes, with mortality, with incarceration, with behavioral health issues. If we had a crisis that was doing that to one in six of us, we would be freaking out," Maria said.

"And that’s exactly what hunger is. It’s not going to be easy, and it’s not going to be quick, but we can fix this. And we should."

All images via Starbucks. Used with permission.

She points out that the effects of food insecurity — not being able to rely on access to affordable and nutritious foods — go far beyond an individual’s health.

"You can’t strategize about getting a job, about finding higher-paying employment, about continuing your education, about taking care of your kids. You can’t think about any of those things if you haven’t eaten anything today," she said.

Knowing how deeply the food was needed and then watching surplus donated food get thrown away was mind-blowing to Maria Rose. She knew there had to be a better way.

Maria Rose enlisted her coder friend Grant Nelson to help her build a nationwide database for food banks: MEANS.

The premise is simple: Food pantries and restaurants — really, all places with extra food — indicate in the database excess food that they have available. Nonprofits in the area are alerted via text or email and are able to go pick up the much-needed food and get it to hungry people.

What’s incredible is that Maria Rose saw a problem and figured out a way to do something about it. Her actions transformed the way food banks are able to communicate with the rest of the community. MEANS makes it possible for so many more people to eat — a basic necessity and human right.

Today, MEANS works with over 800 organizations in 45 states.

Thousands of pounds of food that would have otherwise been trashed are being redistributed every month thanks to MEANS.

A single person had an idea and acted on it and revolutionized a process that has a direct effect on so many people’s lives. It started with her deciding to take action. Imagine what else we can accomplish.

On her late night walks home from cleaning her new restaurant, Minu Pauline was struck by how often she'd see homeless and hungry people searching her garbage for a meal.

Photo by Minu Pauline/Facebook. Used with permission.

"I have seen so many people ... taking food from the trash bin, so it was a shocking thing for me," Pauline told Upworthy.

It forced Pauline — who left her bank job to open Pappadavada in her hometown of Kochi, India, in 2013 — to think about how much food she herself threw out, not only from her restaurant, but also in her daily life.

"So many people are wasting so much food and someone is taking that food from the same trash," she said.

Three years later, Pauline opened a second location of her restaurant with one major addition: She put a fully functional refrigerator out front, and stocked it with food.

Photo by Minu Pauline/Facebook. Used with permission.

Pauline, her customers, and others from the community, leave their leftovers, marked with the date, inside and homeless and hungry people can take whatever they need at any time of day.

Pauline nicknamed the fridge "nanma maram," which means "tree of goodness" or "virtue tree." The fridge is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The refrigerator stays unlocked, allowing hungry people to take what they need without the shame of having to beg.

"They don't have to ask anybody," Pauline explained.

How much food do we waste? A lot.

Food waste is a global problem. Above, people pick through a dumpster in Tel Aviv, Israel. Photo by Sven Nackstrand/Getty Images.

According to the UN Environment Programme, roughly 33% of all food produced for human consumption worldwide is ultimately lost or wasted. A staggering 40% of food in India perishes before it can be consumed, while the U.S. wastes a similarly eye-popping 30%.

Pauline asks people not to purchase food specifically for the refrigerator and to only give what would otherwise go to waste.

Pauline said the fridge has been a huge hit so far and many in her local area have already started contributing their leftovers.

According to Pauline, people stock between 200 and 300 packets (or portions) of food per day in the fridge and, typically, whatever is there in the morning is gone by the evening.

Rather than give to charity, she explained that setting up the fridge was a chance for her to give back the way she knows best.

Food for sale at Pappadavada. Photo by Minu Pauline/Facebook. Used with permission.

While Pauline knows her small outdoor fridge won't solve world hunger overnight, she believes it can make a huge difference for a few in need, while combatting waste at the same time.

In the meantime, her message to her customers is simple:

"What I say is that, 'If you have extra food at home, or if you eat out and you find that you have extra food, come and drop it in this refrigerator," Pauline said.

From Your Site Articles

A soup kitchen disguised as a restaurant is making a big difference in Kansas City.

Doesn't this meal look pretty dang tasty?

Here we have a roast leg of lamb, gravy with red currant, pilaf, steamed broccoli, Farm to Market Bread Co. bread, and fresh fruit. All photos by Kansas City Community Kitchen, used with permission.

And how about this one? YUM.

Check out this ras el hanout chicken, couscous, green beans, cucumber salad, and fresh fruit. SO MUCH YUM.

You might be surprised to find out that these beautiful dishes didn't come from a fancy restaurant or even a special at-home dinner.

They're just a couple of typical meals from one of the country's most innovative soup kitchens.

The restaurant-style Kansas City Community Kitchen is a completely new way to feed those in need.

Say goodbye to trays, buffets, and waiting in lines to eat at a regular old soup kitchen.

When you step inside the Kansas City Community Kitchen today, a greeter shows you to a table. Volunteer waitstaff takes your order after you've had time to look at the menu and see what the culinary team has been cookin' up. The options are healthier and quite creative, like an episode of Food Network's "Chopped," but with the ingredients available to the kitchen that day.

Diners are encouraged to leave reviews of their service and requests for what they'd like to see on the menu.

Have health, dietary, or religious-observance needs? No sweat. Here's an example of a lunch they just prepared during Lent: spiced swai, broccoli cheese casserole, garlic-Parmesan fries with house ketchup, and simple greens salad with tomato-water vinaigrette.

Delicious.

"We are trying to flip the photo of what a soup kitchen looks like," Mandy Caruso-Yahne, director of community engagement at Episcopal Community Services (ECS), told Upworthy.

I'd say they're off to a good start.

But feeding those in need isn't the only way the kitchen is helping. They're training others too.

The ECS Culinary Cornerstones six-month training program gives classroom and hands-on experience to those interested in the culinary industry but who are dealing with barriers that keep them from doing it the traditional way. Besides, school doesn't work for everyone.

Through the program, students work their way up to cooking in the kitchen and providing suggestions for the menu and dishes they prepare. They develop knowledge and confidence in a variety of ways that help them continue down a path in the food industry once they're finished with the program.

It's an awesome way to bring different parts of the community together in one place.

Mandy emphasized that everyone is welcome at their kitchen: college kids, police officers, doctors, students, volunteers. You don't have to be unable to afford food to get a bite to eat or volunteer your time. And with restaurant-quality meals at no cost, how could you resist?

Getting people of all backgrounds to blend together — even for a few hours each day — is such an important way to learn and build trust within the community.

As one diner named Brian put it, "They’re treating me good, like they don’t know I’m homeless."

And that's exactly the point.

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