Food Waste

Project Drawdown estimates that wasted food is responsible for roughly 8 percent of global emissions, ranking the reduction of food waste as the most impactful solution to address climate change.

There is enormous economic and environmental value lost to waste within local food systems that could be retained with efforts to promote less wasteful, money-saving practices among families, farms, businesses and institutions, and to retain value through reuse options that feed the hungry or animals, and the creation of marketable compost products. Business and institutions generate a slight majority of food waste and offer the most opportunity for recovery improvement.

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Supporting Corporate and Institutional Food Recovery

We know that local organizations dispose of significant quantities of fresh food and prepared meals that they might otherwise donate due to perceived or actual limitations in staff training, storage, transportation and liabilities. Local hunger-relief organizations face similar limitations in capacity and infrastructure. We are providing education, technical support, technology investment and program development could deliver substantial improvements in recovery of fresh food and prepared meals in the region.

We also partner with local food pantries and other agencies to facilitate donations. Please reach out if you have material you are hopeful to recover. We are especially interested in working with restaurants and banquet facilities.

Understanding Liability

We recently worked with the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic to create a series of fact sheets on food donation and other food waste issues.