Food Waste Intelligence

When you’ve done all that you can to prevent waste, the next best option on the EPA Food Recovery Hierarchy is feeding hungry people. And when one in six United States citizens receives food assistance, it's as important as ever to do our best to ensure excess edible food makes it to a hungry person instead of a landfill.

If you are interested in donating excess food, there are a number of resources available to get you started. The National Restaurant Association's Conserve Program offers tips and videos for donating, the Food Donation Connectionwebsite has detailed and comprehensive information on donation, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency has compiled many links to helpful donation resources.

Below are a few key points to get you going. We encourage you to explore the possibility of donation at your operation!

• Safety first. Ensuring the food you donate is safe should be priority number one every time.
• The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act protects food donors and recipient agencies against liability, except only cases of gross negligence and/or intentional misconduct.
• Donating food can result in tax benefits and you may also save money on food disposal costs!