Ending Food Waste: Start With These Nationwide, Regional Resources

ACROSS AMERICA — Food waste in America is a 54 million ton, $200 billion a year problem.

An ethos is developing nationwide to reduce the far-flung environmental problems caused by food waste — and connect hungry Americans to food before it’s tossed in the landfill.

We’ve curated a list of resources and programs around the country to help our readers reduce the amount of food they’re wasting. If you know of something exciting going on to reduce food waste to build a better food system where you live, add it to the comments section, and we’ll check it out.

• READ OUR REPORT: How to Stop Heaping On The 54M Tons Of Food Wasted Every Year In The U.S. — The pandemic exposed inefficiencies and failures in America’s food system. Read more about some of the things being done to fix it.

Resource Guide

Corpia: This San Francisco Bay area-based company uses technology to partner with businesses nationwide to redistribute high-quality excess food to people in need.

Feeding America: The nation’s largest domestic hunger relief organization, rescued 3.6 billion pounds of groceries that went directly to people experiencing hunger and food insecurity.

Food Donation Improvement Act: The good Samaritan law protecting farmers, processors, supermarkets and other businesses that donate food from lawsuits was recently expanded to include donors who give directly to a person in need, rather than through a nonprofit intermediary, or those who offer food at deeply discounted prices.

Food Recovery Network: This student-led organization has chapters at 187 campuses in 46 states and the District of Columbia.

Food Rescue Locator: Sustainable America has a searchable map of food rescue resources across the country.

Food Rescue US: This organization rescues nutritious perishable foods has 41 programs in 23 states.

Food Waste Reduction Alliance: This is a consortium of the Consumer Brands Association, FMI — The Food Industry Association and the National Restaurant Association that works to reduce food waste through increased donations to hungry people and conversion of unavoidable food waste to energy use.

Harvard Law School — Center for Health Law & Policy Innovation: Resources include the Food Law and Policy Center, which offers state-level guidance. State specific food waste are found on the site.

K-12 Food Rescue: This group works with schools across the country to end the practice of “landfill feeding” with unopened and unpeeled food from school trays. Currently, U.S. schools send about 1 billion food items to landfills every year.

Misfit Markets: This for-profit business recently acquired Imperfect Foods and delivers rescued food nationwide.

ReFED: This organization uses data to fight food waste, working across the food system to cut food loss and waste in half by the year 2030. Its 2023 Food Waste Forecast looks at what may lie ahead for the food waste movement in the next 12 months.

Society of Saint Andrew: This Big Island, Virginia-based Christian hunger ministry salvages fresh produce and delivers it to soup kitchens across the U.S., with specific projects including The Gleaning Network, The Potato & Produce Project and Harvest of Hope.

Local And Regional Resources

Locally and regionally focused food waste reduction efforts around the country can be found on the USDA website. Others by location are:

412 Food Rescue: Using technology, Pittsburgh-based 412 Food Rescue partners with food retailers, volunteer drivers and other nonprofit organizations to deliver surplus food to people and families experiencing food insecurity.

Boulder Food Rescue: Healthy food that otherwise would be thrown away is delivered by bicycle to low-income communities in this organization built on a model of sustainability.

City Harvest: One of the oldest food rescue organizations in the country, this New York City-based organization’s mission has been to redirect surplus food to residents struggling to feed themselves and their families.

Community Food Rescue: A coalition of businesses, volunteers and hunger relief organizations in Montgomery County, Maryland, uses technology to find perfectly good food before it goes to the landfill and dispatches volunteers to deliver it to agencies serving people who may not know where their next meal is coming from.

Dreaming Out Loud: This District of Columbia-based group is building an urban food system through cooperative social enterprise, with a goal of increasing access to healthy food, improving community health, supporting entrepreneurs and cooperatives from low-income communities; and creating opportunities for at-risk residents to earn sustainable, family-supporting wages and build wealth.

ExtraFood: The San Rafael, California-based organization aims to end hunger and wanted food in the North Bay area by rescuing fresh food from businesses, schools and gardens and immediately delivering it to people facing food insecurity.

Food Forward: This nonprofit works across 12 California counties, distributing an average of 250,000 pounds of food every day, including enough produce to supply more than150,000 people with five daily servings of fruits and vegetables.

Forgotten Harvest: Since 1990, this metro Detroit organization has rescued food from grocery stores, markets, restaurants, caterers and others and delivered it at no cost to emergency food providers in the area.

Hungry Harvest: This food rescue group has rescued more than 27 million pounds of produce, donating 1.7 million pounds of it to people in need in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Greater Philadelphia, New Jersey, Delaware and North Carolina.

Iskashitaa Refugee Network: The organization creates opportunities for UN refugees in southern Arizona while also strengthening the local food system, reducing local food waste and increasing food security.

Island Grown Gleaning: This Massachusetts organization gathers food that would otherwise not be sold, including harvesting surplus crops with volunteers, receiving surplus food, and harvesting or receiving food grown specifically for donation.

Lovin’ Spoonfuls: Based in Boston, this organization is the largest food rescue group in New England. Food that would otherwise be discarded is delivered directly to community organizations and programs where it is needed the most.

Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment: In one of the largest public-private partnerships dedicated to food waste reduction, food businesses and local jurisdictions on the West Coast collaborate to halve food waste in the region by 2030.

ProduceGood: The California-based organization works with produce and citrus growers to donate their excess fruits and vegetables to organizations that feed the hungry.

Rescuing Leftover Cuisine: This organization works in Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas to redistribute surplus food to people experiencing food insecurity.

Rethink Food: This organization partners with restaurants and chefs to direct surplus food insecure communities in New York City.

White Pony Express: Based in Pleasant Hill, California, White Pony Express operates under a volunteer-powered “circle of giving” model through which surplus food and other items are picked up and delivered to people in need.