USDANEWS VOLUME 56 NO.7 - AUGUST 1997

Employee Efforts In Food Recovery Make A Difference

No Time To Waste

by Jim Borland, Office of Communications

We've all heard the old expression, "waste not, want not." But that expression has taken on a whole new meaning for USDA employees around the country involved in gleaning and food recovery efforts aimed at helping to reduce waste, and feed people in need.

USDA accelerated its efforts at gleaning and food recovery in December 1995 when it sponsored a conference to strengthen public and private cooperative efforts in addressing hunger and food distribution issues. However, USDA employees around the country had been involved in gleaning activities prior to that. The Feb. 1996 issue of the USDA News carried a story highlighting examples of that involvement.

Now, what follows are more recent examples of some rather unique and unusual efforts by employees to support gleaning and food recovery.

For instance, Economic Research Service agricultural economist Linda Scott Kantor is a co-author of an ERS study dated July 1997 and titled "Estimating and Addressing America's Food Losses." The study reported that some 27 percent of all edible food in the U.S. was lost to human use at the retail, food service, and household levels in 1995.

She noted that recovering 5 to 10 percent of all that lost food would feed from 4 to 8 million people annually.

"The sheer magnitude of the amount of food lost was startling to discover," Kantor said. "But the big numbers mean big opportunities to put food to use that would otherwise be wasted."

Kantor also observed an interesting economic impact of food loss: disposal costs. "If that same 5 to 10 percent of food were recovered," she observed, "about $50 million annually could be saved in solid waste disposal costs for landfills alone."

Secretary Dan Glickman has made food recovery and gleaning one of his highest priorities, noting that "We need to find ways to get this food into the mouths of the hungry and not into the mouth of the dumpster." Across the country, USDA employees continue to take this challenge to heart.

This season saw a pretty good crop of sweet corn in Illinois. According to FSA's Rod Atterberry, this meant an abundance of sweet corn which could be "gleaned," by volunteers such as those in this photo, and then redistributed to shelters and other food rescue organizations in the state. It was another example of USDA's latest efforts to support gleaning across the country.
--Photo by Jennifer Oxford

Rod Atterberry, County Executive Director for the Farm Service Agency in Mason County, Ill., coordinates a gleaning project in Havana, Ill., with the assistance of Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service unit assistant Jennifer Clark, who provides nutrition and safe handling information to recipient organizations.

"We coordinate the recovery and distribution of the fresh produce," he said, "but our hundreds of volunteers are the backbone of the project."

He noted that, in the past two years, the Mason County gleaning project has recovered and distributed over 39,000 pounds of fresh produce to needy families in central Illinois.

At the Agricultural Marketing Service's Eastern Laboratory in Gastonia, N.C., food recovery has been a long-standing tradition--with a rather unique twist. "Going back a decade or more, we've donated excess egg and poultry products to the Salvation Army Homeless Shelter Kitchen here," said AMS Microbiology Lab Supervisor Ed Hoerning.

With the assistance of Lab Director Jim Hess, in the past two years AMS has donated over 400 pounds of egg and poultry products--which is not usually the typical contribution in food recovery efforts--after the food was determined to be wholesome and appropriate for donation.

"The lab sometimes receives amounts of 'product' that are far more than needed for testing," Hoerning explained. "It seemed such a waste to throw out wholesome product, so we check with the processor who okays the donation, then call the shelter and they pick up the food."

Lab employees counsel the shelter staff on safe handling of recovered food to ensure that food that is safe when it leaves the lab is safe when it's served to those in need.

In Pierce County, Wash., Washington State University Cooperative Extension's Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) recruits volunteers from low-income families to harvest usable produce left after commercial harvest. Volunteers can keep any produce their families can use.

Then the surplus produce is picked up fresh in the fields for distribution to area food banks and hot meal sites.

Extension personnel encourage farmers to allow gleaners on the fields, and they conduct classes for volunteers in gardening, food preservation, nutrition, and food shopping.

"Food resource management--or getting the most value for your food dollar--is one of the basic principles of EFNEP," said Wells Willis, CSREES's national program leader for EFNEP.

The profiles above are just a few of the dozens of gleaning and food recovery projects across the country in which USDA employees are involved. The "Secretary's Column" in this issue of the USDA News highlights an easy way employees can get involved in fighting hunger in their communities--and it's about to get easier still.

On Sept. 15-16 Glickman will co-host the National Summit on Food Recovery and Gleaning in Washington, DC. Its goal is to encourage awareness and participation in gleaning and food recovery--in both urban and rural areas. The Summit program will be satellite down-linked to local Summit locations across the country where USDA employees, community action groups, non-profit anti-hunger advocacy groups, and community leaders will gather to learn about and plan gleaning and food recovery activities in their communities.

"USDA employees are encouraged to participate--whether in Washington or at a local Summit site," said Donna Hines, Summit coordinator and a program analyst with the Food and Consumer Service. She said that employees interested in attending the Summit or in getting involved in gleaning and food rescue activities in their communities can call the Summit Hotline at (800) 880-4183.

"Especially in the field," Hines affirmed, "USDA employees work with many of the same groups we're targeting for participation in the Summit." ¤

Inside the "USDA NEWS" News and Current Information	Past Issues USDA's ...Homepage