Bountiful Harvest: A Food Recycling Program

Confront hunger and fight food waste by redistributing unused food...BUT we can only do this with your help! Food Activist, Food Purveyor.

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GOALS:
***Simultaneously decrease hunger and food waste in the City of Worcester.
***Recover leftover food and convert it into balanced, nutritious meals for the food insecure.
***Provide further resources to existing food assistance programs through food donations.
***Develop a mutually beneficial partnership between local food-related businesses and food assistance programs.
***Identify and develop best practices for an ongoing food recovery program in Worcester. OVERVIEW:
According to the USDA, the number of “food insecure” families in our country has more than tripled since 2006. The available food assistance programs are incapable of meeting the present social need. Food recovery (also called food recycling) is one creative way to help reduce hunger in America. It supplements Federal food assistance programs by making better use of a food source that already exists: unused leftover food that would otherwise be sent to landfills and compost heaps. Every year, America wastes thirty-one billion dollars worth of food that could have been used to feed about 49 million people. Our mission is to recover leftovers from local food related businesses, convert them into balanced meals, and distribute them to food assistance programs within the City of Worcester. After a brief training period in safe food handling, program recruits will get down to work. Donations will be collected from our food service partners (supermarkets, restaurants, farmers, caterers, hotels, college dining halls, etc.) and combined with supplementary ingredients to create nutritious meals. The program then distributes the food to Worcester’s many soup kitchens, shelters, food banks, etc. The program is beneficial to all involved as it reduces storage and disposal costs for the food service industry while increasing the resources available to the local assistance programs and the food insecure.