Many people complain about the food that goes to waste every time there is a dinner party. It is very common in our society for hosts to order excessive amounts of food for their guests, some of who fail to turn up.
They order extra food for several reasons. A lot of times, guests who are unable to attend fail to let their hosts know that they will not be attending. Unfortunately, there is no culture of forwarding apologies for party invitations.
For example, if someone is invited to a wedding party or gathering and is unable to go, he will never call or send a message to his host telling him he is unable to attend. Those who do so will usually telephone around an hour before the party, which is too late because the host will already have ordered the food and made preparations.
My only worry is that we have reached a very high level of extravagance and are sinning by wasting food. This is the case despite our religion advising us to be careful and not to waste food.
The other problem is that some say they will come but then fail to show up while others will keep their options open if they have more than one party to attend at the same time. In other words, they are of two minds whether to attend one party or the other until the very last minute.
A third reason for this extravagance is competition. People compete with one another in organizing the best wedding parties for their sons and daughters and will never settle for less than the best. They even compete over who is able to invite the largest numbers of people. This is not right.
Perhaps the following reason is the worst. Some people want to show off at both happy and sad occasions, and so bring excessive amounts of food to demonstrate how rich they are. This happens a lot. The problem is that some of those who do this are of modest incomes.
My only worry is that we have reached a very high level of extravagance and are sinning by wasting food. This is the case despite our religion advising us to be careful and not to waste food. I have a piece of advice for tribal chiefs and businessmen: Why don't you spend money on feeding the poor or donating to charities that help alleviate poverty? Wedding halls should keep large refrigerators to store leftover food to distribute to the poor and the needy.
