Here’s some food for thought: According to the US Department of Agriculture, nearly 131 billion pounds of food are discarded in the United States annually at the retail and consumer levels. This frightful number is equivalent to about 109 billion meals. With 1 in 8 Central Florida neighbors facing hunger, this wasted food has the potential to nourish lives.
During Food Waste Prevention Week, Bill Collins, Second Harvest’s Chief Operating Officer, shared how pervasive food waste has become.
“As a society, America has a very high standard for food. If the produce isn’t perfect, it gets thrown out,” says Bill. “There is plenty of food in this country; it’s just getting it to the right place.”
That’s where the Retail Rescue Program steps in. This vital food recovery program collects wholesome, unsold food from more than 450 participating retail stores throughout Central Florida. Food is then redistributed to kids, families and seniors facing hunger.
The Retail Rescue product mix – which includes meat, produce, dairy, bakery, and dry goods – offers a wide range of nutritious and highly sought-after foods that would have gotten thrown out by retail stores. Second Harvest’s team of drivers works to safely collect this excess food using a fleet of refrigerated trucks to bring it back to the distribution center. Then, volunteers help sort through the donated food to ensure food quality and safety measures and then package it for distribution into the community through a network of 750 feeding partners.
“Our volunteers go through everything to make sure it’s wholesome and puts the dignity aspect back into it,” says Bill.
Throughout the donation sorting process, even unusable meat and produce have a use. Volunteers set aside these items for a local big cat sanctuary and hog farm where this food that isn’t fit for human consumption can still nourish tigers, wolves, pigs, and even earthworms!
The core mission of Second Harvest is to capture as much of the “extra” food in the community as possible and make it available for neighbors at partner feeding programs. With the support and generosity of food manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, growers, and volunteers, excess food is distributed to our neighbors each year.
Second Harvest also distributes food collected through community food drives. You can help fight hunger and reduce food waste by hosting a food drive or supporting this effort as a monthly donor.
