Jen
Zettel-Vandenhouten, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Published 10:58 a.m. CT Oct. 10, 2019
When Skogen's Festival Foods has produce
nearing its sell-by date, technology helps employees identify which items to
pull from the floor and get ready for pickup.
Then a volunteer from a local nonprofit comes to
the store and takes the donation. They know the items have been stored
correctly and are safe for people to eat.
That process happens daily in commercial
food operations across Wisconsin as an effort to limit food waste and help
people who struggle with hunger.
There is a long way to go.
About 40% of the food supply in the U.S. is
never eaten, according to researchers at the National Institute of Diabetes and
Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
And in the 36 counties that Feeding America
Eastern Wisconsin serves, 1 in 10 people don't have enough to eat, said Patti
Habeck, president and chief executive officer of the organization.
Waste is found along the supply chain, but
leaders at businesses, food pantries and food banks work to curb the problem
however they can. Their efforts follow guidelines established by the
Environmental Protection Agency called the Food Recovery Hierarchy.
EPA Food Recovery Hierarchy chart. (Photo: Special to the Press-Citizen)
It all starts with ordering, and that's why
Festival Foods has worked to improve its ordering practices so that less
food is wasted further down its supply chain, said Cody Sandahl, energy and
material recovery manager.
Next on the hierarchy is donating to
food pantries, homeless shelters and soup kitchens.
During 2018, Festival Foods donated more than
$9 million worth of food to alleviate hunger, the majority of which was fresh
foods: produce, bakery, deli products and meat, Sandahl said. The company
has 31 stores statewide.
Tech is out there, but personal relationships
are still the norm
Free services such as the MEANS Database connect
grocers, restaurants, caterers and food manufacturers with pantries looking for
donations. Individuals can't donate household leftovers because of food safety
regulations.
The Sharing Center in Trevor is one of more than 30
organizations in Wisconsin signed up to use the database, but Executive
Director Sharon Pomaville said so far, she has not had any luck with it.
"I looked at the MEANS Database thinking
it could be beneficial, but I never get any communications from them saying 'We
have food in your area,'" Pomaville said.
The database started in 2015. Since then, more
than 3,000 organizations in 49 states and the District of Columbia have signed
up to use the free service, but it's still expanding in many markets, said
Sammie Paul, chief operating officer.
"Not all of our networks are established
yet. ... Places honestly like Wisconsin — we don't have a steady stream of
donations there," Paul said. "So we're always working to do more
outreach and get more donors on board."
The Sharing Center relies on the relationships
its staff members have built over the years with local businesses, individuals
and other pantries.
"We're a food pantry that doesn't have to
buy any food. Most food pantries have to make purchases for food because
they either can't find it or there isn't much in their community or
somebody else is getting most of it and they have to get food
somehow," she said.
About a year and a half ago, The Sharing
Center and five other food pantries in Kenosha County formalized a partnership
to limit food waste and meet the needs of their clients. If one of the
pantries gets a donation too large, for example, someone on its staff will
alert the Kenosha County Food Pantry Network to see which pantry can use
it.
"We found the tighter the local
collaboration became, the more efficient it became, the less food that was just
not finding a home and the better our pantries were able to serve,"
Pomaville said.
Festival Foods relies on personal
relationships, as well. Before a new store is opened, staff meet with
local nonprofit leaders to figure out what their needs are and how they can
work together, said Nina Winistorfer, community involvement specialist.
"We're big on supporting local pantries,
so the communities that we serve are the communities and local pantries that we
support. That's huge to us," she said.
Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin
facilitates nearly two dozen similar connections through a program called
Direct Connect. The initiative helps businesses get fresh produce and bakery donations
to local organizations faster by cutting out the middle man, said Lisa Endl,
communications manager.
"Rather than having to spend the time to
bring that product to our food bank and then we look at it, sort it and send it
out to the pantry, they're connected directly with a pantry that is
nearby," Endl said.
From July 2018 to June 2019, Direct Connect
participants distributed more than 9 million pounds of food, Endl said.
Working down the hierarchy
Even with the best of intentions, though,
these efforts don't completely eliminate food waste, Sandahl said.
A pantry might have refrigeration equipment
that needs to be repaired, or simply not enough room to store a large
donation.
Businesses might not have their food organized
well and find it has spoiled before they can donate it.
Some grocers prepare fresh-cut fruits and
vegetables, which generate waste no matter what.
And donating waste food for animal feed is
difficult to maneuver. State law prohibits farmers from feeding pigs
garbage, which is defined as "animal or vegetable wastes containing animal
parts." Ruminants, like cows and horses, cannot eat scraps
containing animal by-products, according to federal law.
The regulations make donating food to
farmers for animal feed "extremely difficult for grocery
stores," Sandahl said.
Festival Foods has made strides through
composting with local farms or businesses. One-third of Festival Foods
locations participate.
Sandahl would like more stores to jump on
board, but he hasn't been able to find partners in every community.
Biofuel is another option, and there's a
biodigester at UW-Oshkosh that Festival Foods used for a while. But
when the company factored in the overall costs and the emissions from
trucking, it didn't make sense to continue, Sandahl said.
The landfill is the last option. Sandahl said
he did not know how many pounds of food Festival Foods throws away.
Connecting to more food pantries, composting
and finding more industrial uses for food waste are trends Sandahl hopes will
grow among grocers and the general public in Wisconsin.
"There are communities that do have food
waste programs for the public — they've experimented for several years
with varying degrees of success, but the fact that there's any experimenting
happening is good, because it means there are people trying to solve that
problem," he said.
Jen Zettel-Vandenhouten, an editor for USA
TODAY NETWORK-Central Wisconsin, reports on various issues for The Ideas Lab,
including agriculture, education and violence against women. Email: jzettel@appleton.gannett.com.
Twitter: @jenvandenhouten
How to reduce food waste in your home:
·
Plan ahead before you
go to the grocery store: Write out a shopping list and double check your fridge
and pantry for items you may already have.
·
Buy only what you need
at the store.
·
Purchase
"ugly" fruits or vegetables. These are items that have physical
imperfections but are not damaged or rotten. They're safe to eat.
·
When you eat out, ask
for smaller portions or take leftovers home.
·
Check the temperature
setting on your fridge. Keep the temperature at or below 40 degrees to keep
foods safe. Your freezer should be at 0 degrees.
·
Don't leave perishable
food out at room temperature for more than two hours.
·
Create a designated
space in your fridge for foods that you think will go bad in a few days and use
them up.
·
Eat or freeze items
before you need to throw them away.
·
Use serving size
information on the Nutrition Facts label to determine meal portions.
How I reported this story:
When I started researching solutions to
hunger, I came across the MEANS Database, which connects grocers, caterers,
restaurants and food manufacturers looking to donate food to local pantries and
nonprofits. I interviewed Sammie Paul, chief operating officer for the MEANS
Database, by phone to learn how the technology works and to find out how many
organizations in Wisconsin are using it. After our call, she emailed me a list
with a handful of nonprofits in the state that use the database. That's how I
learned about The Sharing Center. I interviewed Executive Director Sharon
Pomaville and Amy Greil, community development educator for the UW-Madison
Division of Extension in Kenosha County. I reached out to Festival Foods and
spoke with Cody Sandahl, energy and material recovery manager, and Nini
Winistorfer, community involvement specialist. Sandahl referred me to
the EPA Food Recovery Hierarchy, which is what Festival Foods uses
to limit waste. I was one of several reporters who participated in a
conference-call style interview with Patti Habeck, president and CEO of Feeding
America Eastern Wisconsin. I later spoke with Lisa Endl, Feeding America
Eastern Wisconsin's communications manager, about how Direct Connect works. I reviewed a study done by researchers at the National Institute of
Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for information on how much food in
the U.S. is wasted annually. I also reviewed Wisconsin state
statutes on feeding garbage to swine and found a synopsis of the federal law through the nonpartisan, nonprofit
organization ReFed. I also looked through the MEANS Database website. I
found the tips for how to limit household food waste from the FDA website.
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