WHY FOOD RESCUE

Globally, about one third of all food produced each year is lost or spoiled before consumption – addressing this could preserve enough food to feed more than twice the global population of undernourished people (World Food Program USA, 2018). In the United States alone, each year, 40% of food is wasted – from cultivation, harvest, transport, storage, preparation, to fork (National Resources Defense Council, 2012). Meanwhile one in seven Hoosiers are food insecure (IEFRN, 2019).

FOOD RESCUE STRATEGY GROUP

IFSI’s Food Rescue Strategy Group is motivated by the opportunity to improve social equity in Indiana through local food recovery solutions. This group is working with hunger relief organizations such as food banks and pantries to strengthen and support Indiana’s food recovery network, improve efficiencies in the food rescue process, with the ultimate goal of redirecting more edible food from Indiana’s landfills to feed hungry Hoosiers. The strategy group has identified and is strategizing ways to address the following needs of Indiana’s hunger relief organizations:

• Infrastructure: physical space, cold storage, and refrigerated trucks are common bottlenecks for Indiana’s hunger relief organizations
• Communication: quick and efficient communication between banks, the smaller pantries they redistribute food to, and between truckers with loads of food to be donated
• Education: increased awareness among food donors on what can be safely donated and how they are protected from liability under federal law
• Food Waste Composting: many food banks end up with food than cannot be distributed prior to spoilage date and are looking for affordable systems to compost their food waste

 

WHAT IS FOOD RESCUE

Q. What is food rescue?

A. “Food rescue is the practice of collecting edible food that would have otherwise gone to waste from restaurants, grocers and other food establishments and distributing it to local hunger relief agencies” (Food Rescue US)

Q. What is gleaning?

A. Gleaning is the “act of collecting excess fresh foods [primarily] from farms, gardens, [and secondarily from] farmers markets, grocers, restaurants, state/county fairs, or any other sources in order to provide it to those in need” (USDA Let’s Glean Toolkit).

Q. What is the difference between a food bank and a food pantry?

A. “A food bank is the storehouse for millions of pounds of food and other products that go out to the community. A food pantry functions as the arms that reach out to that community direct. Independent community food pantries are self-governing and usually distribute food to their clients on a once-a-month/less regular basis” (Food Bank of the Southern Tier).

Q. What is food insecurity?

A. When meal patterns are disrupted by a lack of available financial resources for food at the household level (Feeding America).

 

HOW TO DONATE FOOD

Q. What food can be donated?

A. Food that has been prepared in a Board of Health licensed facility and has not been served to the public is eligible for donation. Homegrown fresh fruits and vegetables that have not been prepared are also eligible for donation. Reach out to the Indiana State Dept of Health, your local health department, or the intended hunger relief organization for more information.

Q. What types of foods are needed most?

A. This depends on the local food bank or pantry and their storage and refrigeration capacity, so it is recommended to reach out to them before donating or facilitating a food drive. Generally, fresh produce and milk more valuable while bread products and baked goods are usually in overabundance at pantries.

Q. What are the benefits of donating food?

A. Valuable food is diverted from the landfill to feed hungry people! Additionally, businesses and farms that donate food to nonprofits can receive enhanced tax deductions (up to 15% of net income).

Current Tax Law Summary

Legal Guidelines for Federal Tax Deductions

Tax Deduction Infographic

Q. Are donors liable if someone gets sick from donated food?

A. To encourage donations, the Federal Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act protects donors from liability when donating food in good faith to a hunger relief organization. More details on the act in this IFSI Handout.

 

WHERE TO DONATE FOOD IN INDIANA

IFSI’s Food Recovery Landscape Map

IFSI maintains a list of food donation locations across the state of Indiana.

Indiana Emergency Food Resource Network

Indiana’s Emergency Food Resource Network (IEFRN) seeks to provide nutrition and food safety information for emergency food workers and clients through educational resources, including newsletters, education inserts, and food demos. IEFRN’s website houses a food assistance directory for quick and easy access to the emergency food system in Indiana.

Food Drop

If you have a rejected load of quality food, donating is now easier and more cost-effective than dumping. With a network of food banks across Indiana capable of accepting large truckloads, you can get back on the road quickly while knowing your load will feed hungry Hoosiers. Click one of the locations on the map to see contact information and facility details, or scroll down to see the list of participating agencies.

Food Rescue Organizations in Indiana

1. Cultivate Culinary - South Bend
2. Second Helpings - Indianapolis
3. Midwest Food Bank - based in Indianapolis but working through much of the state
4. Indy Hunger Network - operates Indy Food Drop and statewide
5. K-12 Food Rescue - statewide in K-12 schools
6. Campus Kitchens Project - statewide in universities
7. Society of St. Andrew - statewide
8. Feeding America - operates 11 food banks throughout Indiana (see map of locations in link)
9. Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana - Indy
10. Hoosier Hills Food Bank - Bloomington
11. Food Finders Food Bank - Lafayette
12. Second Harvest Food Bank - Muncie
13. Terre Haute Catholic Charities Foodbank - Terre Haute

*This list is not exhaustive.

STATE OF FOOD RESCUE IN INDIANA

Q. How much food is being rescued in Indiana?

A. Great question! IFSI’s Food Rescue Strategy Group is working to gather data to answer this question!

 

FOOD RESCUE RESOURCES

Community Wellness Coordinators at Purdue Extension Offices

Community Wellness Coordinators improve nutrition and health in limited-resource communities statewide by concentrating on NEP’s five focus areas: diet quality, physical activity, food security, food safety, and food resource management. The Community Wellness Coordinator will also help build a community plan as well as create and implement nutrition and health initiatives.

ReFED

ReFED is a multi-stakeholder nonprofit, powered by an influential network of the nation’s leading business, nonprofit, foundation, and government leaders committed to reducing U.S. food waste. ReFED takes a data-driven approach to move the food system from acting on instinct to insights to solve our national food waste problem. Solutions already exist to cut food waste by 20% nationwide. ReFED has identified 27 of the best opportunities through the Roadmap to Reduce U.S. Food Waste, a first-of-its-kind economic analysis, making it easier for stakeholders across the food supply chain to meet the national 50% reduction goal by 2030.

USDA Food Loss & Waste

USDA Food Loss and Waste page provides information on food waste, solutions, funding sources, toolkits, and supporting organizations for the U.S.

World Food Programme

The World Food Programme’s long experience in humanitarian and development contexts has positioned the organization well to support resilience building in order to improve food security and nutrition. WFP helps the most vulnerable people strengthen their capacities to absorb, adapt, and transform in the face of shocks and long-term stressors.

Harvard Food Law & Policy Clinic

The Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC) provides students with the opportunity to practice using legal and policy tools in order to address the health, environmental, and economic impacts of our food system. The FLPC utilizes substantive expertise in food law and policy and a robust policy skill set to assist clients and communities in understanding and improving the laws impacting the food system. Clinic projects aim to increase access to healthy foods, prevent diet-related diseases, assist small farmers and producers in participating in food markets, and reduce the waste of healthy, wholesome food.

Feeding America

The Feeding America network is the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization. Together with individuals, charities, businesses and government we can end hunger.

Meal Connect

Feeding America’s MealConnect links your food donations with local nonprofits for free. MealConnect gives donors a convenient, free and safe way to reduce waste & connect surplus meals with food insecure neighbors.

Food Rescue Hub

Food Rescue Hub, brought to you by Feeding America, is a space for learning, collaborating, and sharing. To strengthen the food rescue community and ensure food rescue remains the leading food recovery option to decrease food waste in our country. The Hub will provide a platform to better enable good food to be safely and efficiently rescued and fed to those in need, which is imperative as more than 41 million Americans face food insecurity while 72 billion pounds of pre-consumer food goes to waste each year.

Food Donation Connection

Food Donation Connection manages food donation programs for food service companies interested in donating food but also has free online food safety handling trainings available for food rescue organizations.

FOOD RESCUE IN SCHOOLS

K-12 Food Rescue

Food Rescue provides step by step instructions on how to start food rescue in your school, and report the food you rescue to the national database.

The Nature of Teaching Purdue Extension Program

“The Nature of Teaching includes formal standards-based curricula and informal activity-based curricula all centered around getting youth outside. The three program areas of the formal curricula include: Wildlife, Health and Wellness, and Food Waste. Each program area provides standards-based lesson plans free as a downloadable PDF. Lesson plans are classroom ready for grades K-12.” Curricula available here.

Farm to School Purdue Extension Program

Farm to School is a comprehensive effort to increase access to healthy food options for Indiana students and create new market opportunities for Indiana farmers. The term “farm to school” encompasses efforts that: Source locally grown foods as part of the school meal or snack program; Offer hands-on learning activities such as school gardening, farm visits, food demonstrations and tastings; Integrate food, agriculture and nutrition education into the regular, standards-based classroom curriculum. Food curricula available here.

Earth Charter Indiana

“Earth Charter Indiana exists to inspire and advance sustainable, just and peaceful living in Indiana by promoting the values and principles of the Earth Charter.…[They] support education of youth regarding climate impacts, and… support them in expressing themselves to make their voice heard.” Their website provides information on their programs, events, and blogs about climate change and youth power. They help schools start food rescue programs and have many success stories of zero waste cafeterias they helped implement. More information here.

Cafeteria Culture

Cafeteria Culture (CafCu) is an environmental education organization working with youth to creatively ​achieve zero waste schools, plastic free waters, and climate smart communities by merging citizen science and civic action with media and the arts.” They have developed educational lessons, videos, and the sort2save kit to help empower students to audit and reduce food waste in their schools.

USDA

The USDA compiles information on food waste, a K-12 Schools Reducing, Recovering, and Recycling Food Waste Webinar, and links to other valuable resources on reducing food waste in schools.

Further with Food

Further with Food is a hub for food waste information, events, and resources. Site visitors can sort posts by audience-click “find resources”, “educators/general public” to get resources for K-12 educators.

World Wildlife Fund

The WWF’s Food Waste Warrior Toolkit provides lessons, activities, and resources to teach students about how what we eat and food waste impacts natural resources.

 

Food Rescue Apps & Technology

Food Rescue US

Food Rescue US is committed to ending American food insecurity by directly transferring fresh, usable food that would have otherwise been thrown away from grocers, restaurants, and other food industry sources to food insecure families throughout the U.S.

OLIO

OLIO is not widely used in the U.S. yet, but it is a free app designed to “connect neighbors with each other and with local shops so surplus food and other items can be shared, not thrown away”.

Falling Fruit

A website (free) and app (low cost) that acts as a map to source urban harvests. Anyone using the app can find food growing around their home-town, available for the picking. Users can post their own findings to the app with a photo, location, status of the food (growing, ripe, etc.), and availability (public, private, etc.).

 

Local Food Rescue Experts

 

Dawn Barnes

Society of St. Andrew - Indiana Regional Director

7840 Ditch Road Indianapolis, IN 46260

317.279.5119 | [email protected]

Society of St. Andrew brings people together to harvest and share healthy food, reduce food waste and build caring communities by offering nourishment to hungry neighbors. We organize volunteers to glean farmers’ excess produce and give all of that fresh, nutritious food away to local hunger relief organizations.

Stacey Risk

Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana - Food Acquisition Manager

3737 Waldemere Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46241

317-925-0191 ext. 150 | [email protected]

Gleaners is leading the fight against hunger in Indiana by distributing food to more than 210 partner agencies in 21 Indiana counties: food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters. We also provide direct services to those struggling with hunger, through programs such as BackSacks: Weekend Food for Kids, School-Based Pantry, C.A.R.E. Mobile Pantry, and Community Cupboard.

Jodi Leamon

Allen County Department of Environmental Management -Sustainability Coordinator

Food Rescue US, Fort Wayne Food Rescue Administrator

1 E Main St, Suite 755, Fort Wayne, IN 46802

206-449-7879 | [email protected]

Assist the community of Allen County, Indiana, in reducing its environmental footprint, and facilitate best practices for reusing, recycling, and composting. This includes any aspect of food waste reduction, but our focus has been prepared food rescue and food scrap composting education.

Rebecca Koetz

Purdue Extension - The Nature of Teaching

195 Marsteller St. West Lafayette, IN 47907

765-496-0260 | [email protected]

Project Coordinator for The Nature of Teaching Purdue Extension program. Facilitates professional development for K12 educators to use the free STEM-based curricula available at www.purdue.edu/nature. Program areas include wildlife, health and wellness, and food waste.