Americans will make about 736 million pounds of turkey this Thanksgiving. Most will be eaten. Some will turn into leftovers. The rest will end up in the garbage.
Nearly 40 percent of all food grown or raised in the U.S. is not eaten and most of the 96 billion pounds of that food ends up in a landfill, according to a 2012 study by the National Resources Defense Council.
At A Glance
Where Waste Occurs
Almost 40 percent of food produced in the United States is not eaten.
Food waste totals nearly 96 billion pounds annually for a loss worth approximately $165 billion.
Half the wasted food comes at the consumer level.
The remaining 20 percent of waste is split between retail and production.
Food, at 21 percent, makes up the largest percentage of waste put into municipal landfill.
Source: Food Recovery: A Legal Guide
referweb.net/211arkansas
Americans waste enough food every day to fill up the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., said Ben Simon, founder and executive director of Food Recovery Network. Simon was in Northwest Arkansas recently to talk about his University of Maryland program that helps connect prepared but uneaten food with hunger agencies.
The biggest hurdle food recovery organizations have to clear is the fear of being sued, said Susan Schneider, law professor and director of the agricultural and food law program at the University of Arkansas. The UA offers the only advanced legal degree program in agricultural and food law in the United States.
That fear is unfounded, she said.
The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act of 1996 exempts those who make good faith donations of food and grocery products to nonprofit organizations that feed the hungry from liability for injuries or illness arising from the consumption of donated food.
The law applies to donations from businesses, organizations and individuals.
Schneider said if food waste was reduced by just 15 percent each year it could provide nutrition for an additional 25 million Americans.
“If it’s good enough that it can be eaten by someone, that is where it should go,” she said.
Nearly 49 million American fought hunger last year, including one in five Arkansans. The Natural State trails only Mississippi in percentage of households with food insecurity, or not knowing where the next meal is coming from.
Web Watch
law.uark.edu/academics/llm/food-recovery-project/
feedfayetteville.org
foodrecoverynetwork.org
samcc.org
Schneider made it her mission to increase food recovery after seeing waste at local grocery stores.
The idea to increase awareness of food donation was born after she asked about old produce destined for the trash to feed to animals and was repeatedly told it could not be donated because it was illegal or went against company policy.
It soon turned into a program geared to feeding hungry people.
She submitted a grant proposal to the University of Arkansas Women’s Giving Circle and produced a 12-page handout outlining the problems of food waste and hunger. The goal was to provide resources and legal information to encourage business to develop food recovery programs. The Food Recovery Project was born.
Business Donations
The project’s next step is to start a blog that lists what businesses give food to hunger groups and look at what is happening in other communities.
“We want to praise and reward businesses that are doing a good job,” she said. “The donations are a form of community service.”
While much food is being wasted, several businesses already have food recovery plans in action, including Panera Bread.
Claudine Stark, market relations manager for Traditional Bakery Inc., franchise owner of the local Panera restaurants, said donation of end-of-day products, such as breads, bagels and pastries, is a company initiative for both corporate and franchise stores.
“The community is our customers, and if we want to be good community stewards,” she said. “We do anything we can to not throw food away.”
Since the breads are made daily with no additives, there is a short window open for donations. Stark said they partner with different groups from Meals on Wheels to churches that pick the food up almost daily.
Once a week the baked goods go to Samaritan Community Center for use in one of the community meals it serves in two locations and for distribution in its food pantry.
Mary Mann, the center’s director of community relations, said they get donations weekly ranging from Red Lobster biscuits to Olive Garden soup.
“It’s been a bit of an uphill battle, but we now have so much food it is wonderful,” she said. “We have a full-time chef that takes anything that is donated and makes it into great things.”
The center serves about 1,200 meals weekly at its Rogers and Springdale centers.
Mann said the center will accept unserved food from banquets or corporate meetings and can even pick the food up.
“There is very rarely something that is donated that we can’t use,” she said. “The problem is getting into people’s minds that you can repurpose food. It needs to be part of the event planning.”
Adrienne Shaunfield, executive director of Feed Fayetteville, agrees. Feed Fayetteville is a community group aimed at alleviating hunger and creating a local sustainable food network.
Feed Fayetteville does not have a food pantry but coordinates with several in the area. People wanting to make donations should call the agency they want to donate to first to make sure it accepts and can handle prepared food donations.
A list of local hunger agencies can be found on the United Way of Northwest Arkansas’ 211 website, referweb.net/211arkansas. Feed Fayetteville has a map of food access points for that city at feedfayetteville.org.
Shaunfield said the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market has also been a source of tens of thousands of pounds of food donations.
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Fayetteville benefits several times from farmer’s market donations, said Laura Wilkins, the church’s community meals program director.
The church serves about 185 people at its lunches on Monday and Wednesdays.
The church also relies on business and event donations.
“We have a couple members who patronize a certain restaurant or grocery store and they will facilitate donation pickup,” she said.
Kim Eskew, president and chief operating officer of Harps Foods, said most of the chain’s food donations are done on a store-by-store basis. The company also donates items that are near its sell-by date from its warehouse, he said.
“Dates became more prevalent a few years ago, and some are somewhat arbitrary,” he said. “Manufacturers give a certain amount of grace period that the food will be good after that date.”
Campus Help
Simon started the Food Recovery Network in 2011 and the program is now on 35 college campuses across the country. He hopes to be at 75 colleges by the end of the school year and 1,000 campuses in five years.
The program started by taking leftover food from the dining hall to area agencies that feed the hungry.
“We want food recovery to be the norm,” he said.
Cameron Caja is in the early stages of starting Razorback Recovery. It will be part of the Food Recovery Network.
“There is a surprising amount of excess food that is not served and is just sitting in the kitchen,” he said.
Caja is still in the planning stages, but said other universities report 250 pounds of excess food a day.
Before tackling the dining halls, Razorback Recovery will work with on-campus retail establishments such as Einstein Bagels. He hopes to start in the dining halls next semester.
Caja is partnering with his brother, Kelsey, on the program. Both are UA seniors.
“We had worked in the food service industry before and it was offensive to us that so much food was being thrown away every day,” he said. “We felt like someone needed to do something.”