It’s been four months since the momentum of the Super Bowl helped bring the work of Food Recovery Network into the homes of millions of people thanks to a live CNN interview, CNN news article, and other media coverage*. 

FRN’s message is clear and simple: 

1) there are 26 million tons of food that goes to waste each year at the farm and institutional level that could instead go into communities facing food insecurity; 

2) there are 34 million people right now who are unnecessarily facing food insecurity who desperately need that food; 

3) we all have the power to change our collective action from food waste to food recovery today.

I wanted to bring this moment back for all of us, after all of the excitement of seeing FRN so prominently displayed on our TV screens and in the news media, to remind us of the invitation I extended to everyone: we all have the power to ensure perfectly good surplus food is donated to those who need it.

Remembrance of things past: We’re in this to win it!

My invitation included a few ideas of what you can do to immediately begin to normalize food recovery. Here’s a recap:

• Get refreshed on FRN’s Food Recovery Verified Program that supports companies and  events in creating a recovery plan for their surplus food. Bonus: bookmark the page and send it to everyone you know. I’m not kidding. Send it to everyone because there’s still a lot of confusion about who can recover food and what food can be recovered, and FRN is literally an expert in clearing up any confusion.

• If your company hosts a conference of any size, make sure there is a recovery plan for any surplus food from the event. You can start by getting in touch with the event coordinators. If the event coordinators were not planning on recovering surplus food, no problem - just introduce them to us and we’ll talk to them about how they can do that. Bonus: the event coordinators might be touched that you were interested in what they’re doing on their end of the company. Building goodwill among colleagues supports a thriving company. I study this stuff and I’m happy to talk with you about it, and I wrote about it here and here for starters!

• If your company has a corporate cafeteria, the same approach applies. Who’s the dining manager? Chances are, we have a relationship with the national dining provider already, so we’re halfway through the door. Find out who your dining manager is, ask them if they have a food recovery plan in place, and if not, introduce them to us. Bonus: have you ever talked to the dining manager of your corporate cafeteria? They and their staff take a lot of pride in making the food that’s available for you and your colleagues. I know, because I’ve spoken with many dining providers over the years and we survey them, too! The last thing they and their staff want to do is throw away the food that goes unsold, but sometimes they don’t know that there is something else they can do with the food.

• Donating to FRN supports our ability to mobilize across the US and increase access to food in communities where it’s most needed. I want to also emphasize that due to systematic disinvestment in certain communities, increasing the flow of food is not only essential, but so is being authentically partnered in these communities. This also means that we must often address the underlying needs of the community before we can really see forward momentum in the flow of food. We talk about this more in our latest public Roundtable Talk. Bonus: if it’s in your budget to become a monthly sustaining donor to FRN, your support helps us stabilize financially and have a good sense of the consistent income we have coming in each month. My main role as FRN’s Executive Director is to fundraise for FRN so that we have the funding necessary to do our basic work. This doesn’t even include what it means for us to expand our work, which is also so desperately needed.

Turning Nos into Yeses: You got this!

I have two pieces of advice for you if this is your first time engaging in conversations around food recovery. First, you can do it! I know you can and I believe in you! Second, don’t take no for an answer. At FRN, we hear no a lot from folks. Many times people will tell us no, the food can’t be donated, but that is simply not true! The Food Donation Improvement Act is just one federal protection in place that makes donating food legal and easy. We know that people don’t say no because they love to throw food away. When you have conversations with event coordinators, catering teams, or dining managers about recovering food, keep trying your best, try to find out why they might be concerned, and don’t hesitate to put them in touch with us to talk more. We’ve heard all of the reasons people say no hundreds of times before and we have solutions for almost any reason, including:

• They truly believe it’s not safe or legal to donate food;

• They are unsure of who would be liable for the food once it leaves their facility;

• They are not even sure if they are “allowed” to do something else with surplus food besides what they’ve always done and been approved to do, aka throw it away;

• They have their system down pat for how they run their back of house and it’s very difficult to:

  • Add a step to the process (read: recover food instead of throw it away);

  • Disrupt a very tight schedule of prepping from one meal to the next, or closing down the house for the night. They might fear that a recovery plan will extend their timing and screw up their process;

  • Try something new: who will help get it started, who will train the staff, and what if it doesn’t run smoothly right away?

We’ve been supporting food recoveries for over a decade and we’re here to help turn nos into yeses. After all, if we took a no at face value, we would not have been able to recover more than 12 million pounds of food across the US. Heck, we wouldn't have even started in the first place because when the co-founders of FRN first approached their dining manager about their idea for food recovery, her answer was no. And when they approached her again, her answer was…still no. We have to keep trying because we know that there is no reason we should be tossing out perfectly good food.

Thank you for RSVPing yes to our invitation to do the right thing with surplus food, support our communities, and help our environment.

PS. *my opening sentence, “It’s been four months since…” immediately brought to my mind the song “Nothing Compares 2 U” by Prince…how about you?