From Food Waste to Food Security
Food waste makes up about 40% of U.S. landfills. With the population of food insecure Americans rising in the past years, many wonder why so much food is wasted when many of our neighbors are hungry. On average, almost 120 billion pounds of food is wasted each year in the U.S. That’s about 130 billion meals, or $408 billion dollars of food going into the trash. While some of this waste is from early parts of the food production and distribution stages–unsuccessful crops, problems in transportation or unmet quality standards for restaurants or stores–most of America’s food waste is from homes, stores, restaurants and other places where food is distributed. Arizona is ranked highest in food wasted in the United States.
Mindi, a neighbor who visits an agency partner of United Food Bank, is committed to helping others. She picks up food biweekly for her own family, her mother, and two of her coworkers’ families. Mindi works in a school cafeteria where she loves being able to feed children and be a positive part of their day. As someone who works to feed people every day, but also relies on food assistance, she spoke on her frustrations with food waste.
“The only thing about working with food and knowing how much people are struggling, is seeing all of the food we waste. And with how much food we waste, we still aren’t allowed to take it home. I understand it’s because of strict federal regulations but I just hate to see perfectly good food go to waste. I do really appreciate my boss because she is really good at reusing things and trying to implement things we can do to minimize our waste. But it always makes me think, what more could we be doing to avoid throwing out food, especially when many families in our school are struggling with”
United Food Bank is committed to reducing food waste in Arizona. Through innovative Grocery Rescue initiatives, we recover and redirect foods that retailers can’t sell, but are perfectly good to eat. Grocery Rescue is an integral part of United Food Bank’s food sourcing. Rescued food contributes nearly half of the food distributed to food-insecure Arizonans.
United Food Bank’s partner organization, Waste Not, is also committed to combating both food insecurity and food waste. Have you ever attended a big event where you noticed tons of leftover food? Did you wonder where that food goes? Most of the time, it goes directly to the landfill. Waste Not, however, connects Arizonans experiencing food insecurity to quality food that would otherwise go to waste. Using Meal Connect, a Feeding America program, Waste Not is able to connect their drivers to grocery stores, catered events, restaurants and resorts where they pick up leftover or unwanted food items of high quality. On the same day, drivers take that food to partner non-profits that can distribute the food out to the public.
By connecting stores directly with partner agencies and working closely with Waste Not, we were able to collectively rescue over 10 million pounds of food last year!
United Food Bank is working hard to connect the lines between food waste and food insecurity. With our dedication and commitment to establishing partnerships around the state and reducing food waste in general, we are able to sustainably feed the millions of Arizonans struggling with food insecurity and hunger.
Want to help support our mission? Consider donating to United Food Bank or Waste Not today!
Sources
Food Waste Statistics https://www.feedingamerica.org/our-work/reduce-food-waste
Waste Not https://www.wastenotaz.org/our-food-donors
Arizona ranks 1st in the country in food waste. Source
Written by Sarah Bathe
