3 ms·

This is a great venture with such a simple message. When you consider how much a supermarket throws out, it would make a lot of sense to place one 'strategicall

by keyle 7y ago

This is a great venture with such a simple message. When you consider how much a supermarket throws out, it would make a lot of sense to place one 'strategically' near a supermarket. Maybe an employee will take it to heart and supply it.

b5 7y ago
In an ideal world, they would be allowed to do that. As it stands, that would potentially be a quick way for them to lose their job. When I last worked in a supermarket (just over three years ago) taking home or giving away food that was destined for the bin was treated as theft. You could be fired for it if your manager felt that way inclined. Several months before I started, several people at another store lost their jobs for just that. Instead of throwing out the bake-goods, they'd been giving them out in small amounts to people who were struggling. Sometimes it was a handful of bread-rolls, other times it would be croissants or muffins. There was no loss to the company because the food had been written off anyway. Still -- it was treated as theft, and they were fired. The company would prefer the food was wasted than it feed people.
- michaelmior 7y ago
  While I certainly agree that it is a shame that food perfectly good food which is going to be thrown away can't go to feed those who need it, I think it's a bit of an oversimplification to say companies want food to be wasted rather than feed people. There are many other issues: liability if someone gets sick, employees intentionally preparing too much food to ensure extras leftover, etc. I'm not saying these issues are more important than keeping people fed, but I do think addressing these sorts of things would go a long way to make policies allowing food to be given away more practical.
  - Miner49er 7y ago
    > There are many other issues: liability if someone gets sick, employees intentionally preparing too much food to ensure extras leftover, etc. Pretty sure the liability thing is just a convenient excuse. In the US we have the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, which protects food donors from being sued. I bet most other countries have something similar. Additionaly, nobody has ever been sued over donated food in the US.
    - majos 7y ago
      Interesting, I didn't know about that legislation. In that case, I don't follow supermarkets' logic. If donations are restricted to people who can't otherwise afford the food, and the food will be discarded anyway, why not donate it? Maybe some people will substitute donated food in place of purchasing food themselves. I wonder if supermarkets have data suggesting this is a meaningful fraction of customers.
      - barbecue_sauce 7y ago
        Many supermarkets actually will and do donate food. Sometimes it's even hard to find enough qualifying organizations to take it all. Usually organizations must be documented 5031(c)(3) Tax Exempt non-profits. Donation pickups are usually run by volunteers, so can be inconsistent. Perishable items that are safe to donate usually include in-store baked bread and centrally-produced commercial bakery products. A lot of the food waste (within which I'm including near-expiration perishable foods) is simply not edible or will not be edible by the time it makes it to someone who wants/needs it, but will occasionally make it into a separate stream for reuse (for example, I've seen a wide variety of food waste make it into the hands of pig farmers). CPG/Self-stable items (which are much safer and realistic to donate) that have aesthetic imperfections will often be sent to a centralized reclamation facility and then parceled out to organizations as seen fit. As another poster said, no one has been sued in the US for donations, but supermarket chains are also reticent about the optics of donating food that has clearly expired. Just because you won't be sued doesn't mean you won't feel some blowback in public sentiment if you cause an outbreak of food poisoning in the food-insecure demographic of the population by improperly donating food.
    - michaelmior 7y ago
      I didn't know about the Food Donation Act! Good to know :) After some brief research, I found that my native Ontario has the "Donation of Food Act" which seems to offer similar protections. More info for fellow Canucks at the link below. http://www.nzwc.ca/focus/food/guidelines-for-food-donations/Documents/18-064-FoodDonation-LiabilityDoc-v7WEB.pdf http://www.nzwc.ca/focus/food/guidelines-for-food-donations/...
    - 7y ago
saalweachter 7y ago
While I can't speak to all grocery stores in all locations, there are food recovery networks that operate at scale. The pantries I work with collect and redistribute food from something like 30 different local businesses and organizations, including local supermarkets (mostly "day-old" bread and pastries), cafeterias (surplus prepared food), and farmers (surplus produce). We also benefit from middle-man organizations that collect at a larger scale and redistribute to smaller pantries like us -- large donations of canned and other packaged food, gleaned fruits and vegetables which are perfectly fine but didn't make the market cut (ie, ugly tomatoes), and the like.

by keyle 7y ago

b5 7y ago

In an ideal world, they would be allowed to do that. As it stands, that would potentially be a quick way for them to lose their job. When I last worked in a supermarket (just over three years ago) taking home or giving away food that was destined for the bin was treated as theft. You could be fired for it if your manager felt that way inclined. Several months before I started, several people at another store lost their jobs for just that. Instead of throwing out the bake-goods, they'd been giving them out in small amounts to people who were struggling. Sometimes it was a handful of bread-rolls, other times it would be croissants or muffins. There was no loss to the company because the food had been written off anyway. Still -- it was treated as theft, and they were fired. The company would prefer the food was wasted than it feed people.

michaelmior 7y ago
While I certainly agree that it is a shame that food perfectly good food which is going to be thrown away can't go to feed those who need it, I think it's a bit of an oversimplification to say companies want food to be wasted rather than feed people. There are many other issues: liability if someone gets sick, employees intentionally preparing too much food to ensure extras leftover, etc. I'm not saying these issues are more important than keeping people fed, but I do think addressing these sorts of things would go a long way to make policies allowing food to be given away more practical.
- Miner49er 7y ago
  > There are many other issues: liability if someone gets sick, employees intentionally preparing too much food to ensure extras leftover, etc. Pretty sure the liability thing is just a convenient excuse. In the US we have the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, which protects food donors from being sued. I bet most other countries have something similar. Additionaly, nobody has ever been sued over donated food in the US.
  - majos 7y ago
    Interesting, I didn't know about that legislation. In that case, I don't follow supermarkets' logic. If donations are restricted to people who can't otherwise afford the food, and the food will be discarded anyway, why not donate it? Maybe some people will substitute donated food in place of purchasing food themselves. I wonder if supermarkets have data suggesting this is a meaningful fraction of customers.
    - barbecue_sauce 7y ago
      Many supermarkets actually will and do donate food. Sometimes it's even hard to find enough qualifying organizations to take it all. Usually organizations must be documented 5031(c)(3) Tax Exempt non-profits. Donation pickups are usually run by volunteers, so can be inconsistent. Perishable items that are safe to donate usually include in-store baked bread and centrally-produced commercial bakery products. A lot of the food waste (within which I'm including near-expiration perishable foods) is simply not edible or will not be edible by the time it makes it to someone who wants/needs it, but will occasionally make it into a separate stream for reuse (for example, I've seen a wide variety of food waste make it into the hands of pig farmers). CPG/Self-stable items (which are much safer and realistic to donate) that have aesthetic imperfections will often be sent to a centralized reclamation facility and then parceled out to organizations as seen fit. As another poster said, no one has been sued in the US for donations, but supermarket chains are also reticent about the optics of donating food that has clearly expired. Just because you won't be sued doesn't mean you won't feel some blowback in public sentiment if you cause an outbreak of food poisoning in the food-insecure demographic of the population by improperly donating food.
  - michaelmior 7y ago
    I didn't know about the Food Donation Act! Good to know :) After some brief research, I found that my native Ontario has the "Donation of Food Act" which seems to offer similar protections. More info for fellow Canucks at the link below. http://www.nzwc.ca/focus/food/guidelines-for-food-donations/Documents/18-064-FoodDonation-LiabilityDoc-v7WEB.pdf http://www.nzwc.ca/focus/food/guidelines-for-food-donations/...
  - 7y ago

saalweachter 7y ago

While I can't speak to all grocery stores in all locations, there are food recovery networks that operate at scale. The pantries I work with collect and redistribute food from something like 30 different local businesses and organizations, including local supermarkets (mostly "day-old" bread and pastries), cafeterias (surplus prepared food), and farmers (surplus produce). We also benefit from middle-man organizations that collect at a larger scale and redistribute to smaller pantries like us -- large donations of canned and other packaged food, gleaned fruits and vegetables which are perfectly fine but didn't make the market cut (ie, ugly tomatoes), and the like.