“This meat’s a funny colour, do you think I should eat it?”

“No, better throw it out,” comes back the reply.

So, now I’m adding to the £13 billion-worth of once-edible food waste that is disposed of in the UK every year according to www.wrap.org.uk.

At least the East of England Co-op are doing something about it, offering items just past their ‘best-before’ date at 10p each.

According to the retailer, these reduced items are selling out within hours of the price being reduced. This should save two metric tonnes of waste from being thrown out. Let’s hope it doesn’t just end up in someone else’s bin.

The average household is expected to spend at least £174 just for food on Christmas Day. I wonder how much of that will find its way to the bin in the following days. I know we always try to use up as much as possible, it makes good economic sense if nothing else.

It reminds me of the time Jesus is reported to have fed over 5,000 people on a bread and fish lunch.

The Bible tells us: “When they had all had enough to eat, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.’” (Book of John chapter 6, verse 12)

It’s a rather strange thing to say. Why not let the people keep the scraps to feed the kids on the way home, or just leave it for the birds?

In John’s Gospel this whole episode is used to teach the disciples something else though – not just about having enough to eat, but about ‘spiritual’ food.

“I am the bread of life,” Jesus declared, “Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35).

That sounds like food worth having.

Many of Jesus’ followers thought so too. The trouble is, we are reading it nearly 2000 years later and it all sounds just a bit too far-fetched to some. Who could possibly believe today that what we read in the Gospels is, well, Gospel truth?

If you are feeling that hunger for something that food doesn’t satisfy – a hunger for meaning in this life, and maybe beyond, then why not look again at the claims of Jesus? (Visit www.christianity.org.uk if you want to find out more.)

After all, we may be in danger of throwing away life-giving food, just because it seems to be a bit beyond its use-by date.

Rev. Ian Enticott

Area Dean of Accrington