Thanks to Jonathan Bloom for this series of photos. Jonathan is writing a book on wasted food in America. He became interested in the topic after a day volunteering at D.C. Central Kitchen. Seeing the truckloads of rescued food that would otherwise have gone to landfills made him wonder how much edible food does slip through the cracks.

As a journalist, Bloom set out to learn why and how Americans waste more than 40% of the food produced for consumption. He started a blog dedicated to the topic and worked at a grocery store, farm and catering company to better understand the problem.

The photos below depict the incredible amount of food wasted in America, and also some hopeful examples of food recovery.

Cartons of strawberries, many of which have gone bad.

Discarded food at the Crazy Horse Sanitary Landfill in Salinas, California.

More discarded food at the Crazy Horse Sanitary Landfill in Salinas, California.

A dumpster behind a supermarket (with past-date, but still fresh lettuce) in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Unharvested iceberg lettuce that will be tilled under in Salinas, California.

Damaged boxes of crackers that will be salvaged by an organization called Senior Gleaners (Sacramento, CA) provided the crackers have not been exposed).

Eddie Heard, 81, a senior gleaner recovering grapes from a woman’s backyard arbor that would otherwise go to waste.