Food waste is a huge problem – literally. In the U.S. a staggering 40% of all food is wasted each year. Discarded food accounts for nearly one quarter of the material in our landfills. And globally, this wasted, decomposing food is responsible for about 8% of all global emissions.
With so many people in our community facing hunger, there’s no reason for this food to go to waste. That’s where the Food Bank comes in. Since our founding in 1975, we’ve been working to keep food on the tables of people who need it, and helping the planet in the process.
Our Grocery Recovery Program is just one way we’re continuing this work today. Each year, the Food Bank and our agency partners rescue about 6.5 million pounds of food from more than 130 retail locations in Contra Costa and Solano Counties! Through our partnership with Feeding America we’re also able to rescue surplus or imperfect – but totally edible – food from manufacturers and farmers.
Behind the scenes of food rescue
Much of the day-to-day work of rescuing food from grocery stores is done by our agency partners – a group of more than 260 food pantries, soup kitchens and other nonprofits you help us support across our two counties.
In El Sobrante, the St. Callistus conference of St. Vincent de Paul rescues unsaleable but edible food from nearby Target, Smart & Final, Raley’s and Safeway stores. Above, volunteers get an early start – picking up groceries from Target at 7:30 a.m.!
All food rescued at these stores is still safe to eat. But, it might otherwise be thrown out because it was manufactured for a holiday that has now passed, has mislabelled or damaged packaging, or because it is too close to its expiration date to be put on shelves.
“We get everything. We get frozen meats, we get produce, bread, canned food, sweets,” says St. Vincent de Paul conference president Carol Brazil. With a limited budget for food purchases and the number of neighbors needing help with food rising steadily over the past year, Brazil says the rescued groceries are critical to keep her group’s distributions going.
“We wouldn’t be able to do it without it,” she says.
St. Vincent de Paul distributes the rescued food twice a week at St. Callistus Catholic Church in El Sobrante. These distributions help about 100 people per day put food on their tables – all while reducing waste and helping our planet.
