Fighting Food Waste

A group of volunteers in Luxembourg City collects edible food that shops and restaurants would dispose of at the end of the day to keep it from ending up in the garbage. Members of the organization, called Foodsharing Luxembourg, are informed through an app when food is available for pickup. Once they claim an order, they pick up everything the store offers and decide how it gets redistributed.

Community fridges, like The Friendly Fridge, popped up during the pandemic as a way to get food to people in need, as the pandemic highlighted nationwide food insecurity issues. The fridges survive on donations from community members, other organizations and local restaurants and grocery stores. It’s estimated that about 250 people will grab something from The Friendly Fridge each day.

Los Angeles-based nonprofit Food Forward was born out of the observation that many farmers are growing more fruit than they can sell at market. To cut down on food waste and get these viable fruits into the hands of people that are food insecure, Food Forward operates as the "transfer point between donors and receiving agencies," while also coordinating volunteers to forage the local farms and farmers markets.

We Don’t Waste serves more than 100 hunger relief organizations across the city and has saved and redistributed 220 million servings of food to date. The team of staff and volunteers who recover and distribute food to the community has not only helped prevent food waste, but also greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental consequences, all while feeding locals in need.

Since its 2015 Expo, Milan has continued to foster a number of unique initiatives to combat food waste, promote healthy and sustainable food systems, and ensure that its people never go hungry. Through projects such as collecting unsold food at the end of market day for distribution in soup kitchens, using apps to redirect food waste, implementing new laws to ease the process of food donation, as well as fostering collaboration between cities, Milan is leading the efforts to prioritize food on the New Urban Agenda.

The UGA Garden works with Trader Joe’s to gather viable produce the grocery chain gets rid of each Sunday. Student workers go through the food each week, compost what has gone bad, and use the rest to make meals for those in need. The organizations has gathered over 330,000 pounds of food so far and deliver over 700 meals per month.

A third of food produced, or about 1.3 million metric tons per year, goes to waste. The city of Milan is a pioneer in eliminating food waste. The city launched food waste hubs in 2019. Donations from supermarkets supply the hubs with food that are then donated to families in need. The three hubs save about 130 metric tons of food per year, eliminating the production of 497 metric tons of CO2.

Volunteer-run organizations are helping those facing food insecurity throughout Beirut by preparing and delivery food on a daily basis. Although the food system in the country remains heavily strained, the grassroots network of organizations are relying on one another for support which has resulted in diverting aid and strategically funneling resources where they're most needed.

When the economy came to a sudden halt with the onset of a global pandemic, farmers were left with produce meant for the restaurant industry while families who lost incomes struggled to put food on their tables. For one good samaritan “it was just a matter of connecting the dots.” George Ahearn's idea to crowdsource transportation from farms to food banks led to the creation of EastWest Food Rescue, a nonprofit that has delivered 2.4 million pounds of crops to 160 food banks.

Finding alternatives for uneaten or imperfect food reduces waste. In Denver, multiple initiatives, ranging from the city’s Certifiably Green Denver program to tech startups and nonprofits, are working to tackle the problem of excess and wasted food. The nonprofit organization, We Don’t Waste, redistributes unused food from large venues at food banks and farmers markets. The tech startup, FoodMaven, similarly aims to reroute food from the landfill to consumers.