Local Groups Work to Rescue and Prevent Food Waste
Each year, New York State generates four million tons of food waste. A portion of that includes food scraps and soiled or rotten food. However, a large percentage of wasted food is still fit for consumption. Organizations in the Hudson Valley and independent operations at colleges, soup kitchens, and restaurants work to prevent excessive food waste and rescue food that is still edible — all to mitigate the impacts on food insecurity and climate change.
FeedHV, a regional food rescue and community network, works to pair donors with non-profit agencies with food assistance programs. The organization rescues unopened and unused food from individuals, restaurants, and cafeterias throughout Dutchess, Orange, and the surrounding counties, and delivers them to soup kitchens and food pantries.
In 2022, the New York State Senate will implement a bill requiring that certain businesses (like restaurants) have food donation and food scraps recycling programs. “Businesses will be required to either recycle, give away, or compost food, food scraps, and food waste,” said Erica Doyle, a program associate at FeedHV. “We’re hoping that we can have the infrastructure set up for that.”
FeedHV is currently set up to donate edible, unused food to organizations that support food insecure populations. However, this new bill requires the donation of food scraps as well — which will be used for compost or even animal feed. Most of the donations that FeedHV currently receives are pre-made foods, like catering trays and meals from cafeterias, or perishable goods like loaves of bread. For example, Emmanuel’s Market in Stone Ridge donates to FeedHV at least twice a week, every week.
Some of the largest food donors are colleges — including Bard College, whose on-campus organization BardEATS focuses on food sustainability and zero-waste initiatives. But instead of only focusing on rescuing food waste, the organization also aims to prevent it.
“We work very closely with Parkhurst Dining, which is our dining services provider, to encourage them to buy only the food that they actually need,” says Melina Roise, co-chair of BardEATS. “They do a great job at calculating what they need, and we tend to not have very much food leftover.” Every week, the organization plans for volunteers to bring leftover food to food shelters. But some weeks, the food runs don’t happen. “Sometimes we don’t have any food leftover at all,” Roise says.
Food waste is detrimental to the environment, releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases in landfills and wasting the resources, energy, and labor used to produce the food. But aside from just that, Roise says that large amounts of food waste — or any food waste at all — is also disrespectful to one of the largest industries in the Hudson Valley.
Farmers are a significant part of the Hudson Valley’s economy, and they work hard to produce the food consumed by the community. “We source food from so many local farms, and we want to respect the work of all of those people and animals and the soil that went into making our food,” says Roise. “We also have a farm on campus, and it’s sad to see the food produced there go to waste.”
Whether it’s large trays of prepared food or a single vegetable from a community garden, it’s disappointing to see food go to waste — especially food that a local producer has worked hard to cultivate or create.
As a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, food waste has actually decreased for certain industries, specifically the restaurant sector. “Restaurants aren’t producing as much food waste in general. COVID has made them tighten up their operations — especially with restaurants being hit especially hard nationwide,” says Doyle. There are less customers, meaning less food scraps leftover after meals, and also less excess product in the cooking process as well. “For the most part, I think they’re running pretty tight ships now.”
In order for donations to happen, awareness must be raised surrounding the issue of food waste. As long as individuals and businesses understand the impacts of food waste, and what can be done to both prevent and rescue it, the negative effects can be mitigated. With education on the topic increasing, more people and businesses are putting in the effort.
“Usually there’s someone at the donation site that feels strongly about the mission, who has a motivation to contribute leftover food,” says Doyle. “It takes extra thought and effort on their part to schedule these food donations rather than just throwing food away. But they put in that effort anyway.”
