READING COMPREHENSION EXERCISE

1C Food rescue mission

PRE-READING Skimming
Skim the article. How does Robert Lee help make a difference in his city?
RTA: What Robert Lee did was more than an act of help but an act of courage to give everything to
help those most in need, he created an application where the leftover food is unified but is in good
condition, where the restaurants that are The places where food is wasted the most report the amount of
food left over they have per day and then each volunteer registers to agree on the delivery of said food
and go to the different shelters to supply the people most in need.
When you hear the word hero, you may think of someone like Mahatma Gandhi, who devoted his life
working for his country’s independence. But there are also many “everyday” heroes—they may not
create change on a global scale, but they do what they can to help make a difference in people’s lives.
Everyday heroes are normal people who are passionate about making the world a better place. One
such person is Robert Lee.
Lee grew up in New York City. As his family was not rich, he learned from a young age the
importance of minimizing food wastage. When he was in college, he was part of a student group that
delivered leftover food to homeless shelters. This experience made him realize how serious the
problem of food wastage actually was.
After graduating from New York University, Lee and a college friend created a nonprofit [1] organization
called Rescuing Leftover Cuisine. Its purpose is to collect unsold food from restaurants and deliver it to
homeless shelters and food kitchens. Volunteers pick up food from restaurants around the city and
distribute it to those in need.
The process is simple. Using an app developed by Lee and his team, restaurants report the amount of
leftover food that they have each day, and then volunteers sign up for delivery slots. The delivery
routes are usually short, so volunteers can deliver the food they’ve collected simply by walking from
the restaurants to the shelters. Lee believes this is a very efficient method of delivery.
To date, Lee and his team have successfully rescued over 150,000 kilograms of food, serving almost
300,000 meals to people who need them. Lee has shown how we can take small actions to improve the
lives of people around us. A simple idea or action may sometimes seem insignificant, but it may have
an impact greater than you can imagine. But Lee says that his work isn’t over: “It’s just the beginning.
The need is so great, and there’s just so much demand. With more restaurants, who knows how much
more we can do.”

UNDERSTANDING MAIN IDEAS Choose the correct answer.

What is the main purpose of the passage?

a. to explain how Robert Lee got the idea for his organization
b. to show an example of how regular people can make a difference
c. to explore the problem of food waste in restaurants and households

CLASSIFYING FACTS OR OPINIONS

How does Rescuing Leftover Cuisine work? Order the stages from 1 to 6.

 A restaurant is given an app that Lee’s team developed. _1__

 The restaurant reports how much food it has left at the end of the day. _2__
 People in need receive food from the volunteer. _6__
 The volunteer picks up unsold food from the restaurant. _4__
 The volunteer walks to a homeless shelter with the leftover food. _5__
 A volunteer agrees to take on the delivery job. _3__

BUILDING VOCABULARY A  Match the words in blue from the passage to their

definitions.

(a ) devoted: having strong feelings or beliefs.

( b ) passionate: gave all or most of one's effort or time.

( c ) minimizing: reducing.

( d ) insignificant: unimportant.

 
B. Complete the sentences with the correct form of the words from the box.

Minimize passionate insignificant devoted

1. Many researchers have _____devoted_____________their lives to finding a cure for cancer.

2. Countries need to work together in order to __Minimize________ethe impact of climate
change.
3. People who are ____passionate______________about their jobs tend to work hard and do
well.
4. We should all do what we can to help others. No contribution is ___insignificant_____

CRITICAL THINKING Reflecting Write complete ideas to explain

1. Look at the infographic above. How do you think so much food gets wasted?
RTA: Well, when sometimes we go to eat at restaurants and we don't like something,
we leave it and many restaurants do not realize that other people can be served and
they only throw it away, also when in our homes there is something left over from lunch
many people who do not keep it to heat it in another meal or use it to complete some
 other meal of the day but throw it away and then that can serve us or someone who
knows how to take advantage of it.

2. Thinking about your country/ city current situation, how can you make a difference
regarding foodz supply and food waste?

RTA: First I would like to set up awareness talks to people or online courses giving daily
tips to store their food for a future reuse, in my house we have some very good plastic
containers where we refrigerate the remains of food at least from lunch and we use it To
complete dinner time, then it would be a great move to create some online videos with tips
on how to reuse the leftovers from your meals creating new recipes, and then another idea
would be for neighborhoods to build foundations where the ends of our dedication to go
through The houses or restaurants where they bring us something that we can put together
a breakfast, a lunch or a dinner for the different people on the street who are the most
vulnerable because they don't even enjoy a roof, I tell an experience and that is that in a
youth group of my church most of Sundays very early we made liters of aguapanela and
distributed it through the parks and our neighborhood along with a bread and that came
out of all the money that we collect during the week in the daily masses then it could be
another idea.