UCONN Panelists Focus on Food Waste

On Thursday, April 6th at 6pm,  UCONN's Science Salon will host a panel of faculty, and students,  who will be discussing current efforts on reducing food waste. The panel is formally entitled, Throwing It All Away: America's Food Waste Epidemic.

If interested in attending, click here for more information.

Landfill can no longer be an option...

"Those carrot tops you've lopped off are not garbage. Your snapped-off green-bean stems are not scraps. They are what Thomas McQuillan, sustainability director for Baldor, a specialty foods and produce distributor, calls sparcs — "scraps" spelled backward and pronounced like "sparks." And sparcs, despite popular assumption, are often just as edible as the rest of the fruit or vegetable.

The company, which provides produce and specialty goods such as caviar and olive oil to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast's food-service industry, no longer produces any organic food waste as of this year, thanks to some clever reuse initiatives." Read More...

Source: Chicago Tribune, 11/7/17

School Meals May Turn Organic

"Every year the National School Lunch Program spends almost $13 billion to feed over 30 million children. For years, school leaders and community activists have been working to improve the food purchased with those public dollars. Now advocates have a new tool to help achieve just such a lofty goal: It’s called the Good Food Purchasing Policy and after its successful passage in 2012 by the Los Angeles Unified School District and the city of LA, school districts and cities across the country are exploring its possibilities for shaping how public food, like school lunch, is procured.

The policy is similar to LEED certification, only for food instead of buildings.

Under the policy, suppliers must meet basic criteria across five values: supporting local economies; promoting health; providing a safe and healthy workplace and fair wages; protecting animal welfare; and promoting environmental sustainability."

Source: Alternet, 1/18/17,  Learn More...

CT Unveils First Food Waste-to-Energy Facility

"Quantum Biopower celebrated the completion of Connecticut’s first food waste to renewable energy facility in Southington with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Nov. 15. The ceremony, held on Connecticut Recycles Day, marked the completed construction of Connecticut’s first anaerobic digester.

The state of Connecticut’s food waste diversion mandate, which requires that certain food waste generators producing more than 2 tons of food waste per week or more separate out that waste from their other garbage and send it to a compost facility or digester for recycling, was a driving force in the development and completion of the digester."

Source: Renewable Energy From Waste, 12/20/16, Learn More...

USDA Releases "Fresh" Guidelines

Due to the large amount of food that is wasted daily by most Americans, the USDA has developed a fresh set of guidelines that will prevent this issue from recurring.

Sasha Stashwick, a representative of the the National Resource Defense Council stated, "9 of 10 shoppers are confused by the dates that are labeled on the product."

To lower the confusion; USDA has now required that the "best if used by" label be the only label used by meat, dairy, and egg manufacturers.

Source: CBS News, 12/18/16, Read More...

Battles Arise for Food and Farm Policies

The Trump administration has, so far, paid very little attention to policies regarding food and farming. But there is likely to be major changes to current food policies with the incoming administration.

Kip Tom, a farmer from Indiana and member of Trump's advisory committee on agricultural policy, described this as a time to "swing for the fences."

Check out the full article from NPR to learn about potential changes coming down the pike.

Eliminating Food Waste Can Feed Our Hungry Neighbors

"Imagine, if you will, a disaster movie monster wreaking havoc on the planet. Its thirst drains Lake Geneva of its water three times a year, its hunger devours a third of all of Earth’s food, and its breath emits greenhouse gases at a level outpaced only by the U.S. and China..."

Source: Time, 12/01/16,  Read More >

Food Waste in Connecticut Will Be Reduced Thanks to Federal Funds

"A $50,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a $25,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have been awarded to the Massachusetts-based Center for EcoTechnology, which is executing projects across Connecticut to help businesses and institutions minimize wasted food. The center expects to provide technical assistance to up to 20 businesses in 2017 and ultimately divert 600 tons of wasted food."

 Source: NBC CT News, 11/19/16, Federal Funds to Help Reduce Foods Waste

NESAWG Hosts Annual Conference

The Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Work Group (NESAWG) will be hosting its annual It Takes a Region conference, November 10-12 in Hartford. The conference brings together farm and food system practitioners across the 12-state Northeast region to learn, debate, collaborate, and innovate solutions to critical food systems issues. The theme for this year's conference is Tackling Wicked Problems in Food Systems.

For more info->

Congress Reviews Meal Programs

Congress is currently in the process of developing various legislative standards that will allow 50 million children nationwide to have access to a healthy and affordable school meal.

The House Education and Workforce Committee approved a bill back in the spring that requires the USDA to revise its science-based meal guidelines,if school administrators report a complaint of high cost or lack of student participation. The Senate Agriculture Committee proposed a bill that preserves the authority of the USDA to establish nutrition standards in accordance to a child’s health needs.

Members of Congress are also formulating nutrition standards that focus on snack foods, access to healthy foods, and investing in modernized equipment. Read More...


Source: The Pew Charitable Trusts, 09/26/16    

FDA Updates Nutrition Labels

The Food and Drug Administration finalized a rule last week to update Nutritional Fact Labels on food products. The updates include a new design for the label that highlights calories and serving sizes, as well as new serving sizes that more closely reflect the amount of food people actually eat. The update will include two columns that list both “per serving” and “per package” calorie and nutrition information for certain products consumed in one or multiple sittings like a pint of ice cream or 3-ounce bag of chips. The rule also includes a provision that forces food producers to list the grams and a percent daily value for added sugar, that is ingredients like high fructose corn syrup they add to a product’s natural sugars. Other changes to the label include a requirement for products like a 20 ounce soda that’s consumed in one sitting to be labeled as one serving and removing from labels “calories from fat,” but “Total Fat,” “Saturated Fat” and “Trans Fat” will remain. Food groups up in arms over the new requirement have accused the Food and Drug Administration of pushing forward without the proper science to back it up.

Source: The Hill, 5/20/16, Food Label Update

Better Food Dating System Could Save Billions

James Arena-DeRosa, president of Foodshare of Hartford and Tolland Counties, said the existing "patchwork of laws" in different states and confusion over differing regulations have made food companies wary of donating lots of food. "Millions and millions of pounds of food are being wasted," he said."

 
"New federal food labeling standards to let consumers know how long food can actually be safely eaten would save billions of dollars in usable food that's now being thrown away, said a panel of experts who gathered at a Stew Leonard's store on Thursday.

Food bank officials, environmentalists, academics and food industry representatives met to support U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal's new legislation aimed at establishing a uniform federal food dating system." Read more >

It's Time To Get Serious About Reducing Food Waste

"Word that Americans throw away about one-third of our available food has been getting around.

Now there's an official goal aimed at reducing that waste.

Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency — along with many private-sector and food-bank partners — announced the first ever national target for food waste.

"[We're] basically challenging the country to reduce food waste by 50 percent by the year 2030," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack tells The Salt."  Read More...

Accepting help from other countries?

The Vermont Foodbank posted a very interesting blog entry about Share Our Strength's most recent ad campaign drawing attention to hunger in America:

"How does the U.S. compare to other countries when it comes to hunger? Not just Germany (or other “social democratic” countries), but China or Slovenia? Not so well, it turns out.

Share our Strength, a national anti-hunger organization has developed some provocative ads that turn the usual thinking on its head. In this, the wealthiest nation on earth, we are often asked to help other countries that suffer from extreme poverty and social ills. What if other countries looked at the troubles we have here and wanted to help? What would that look like?"  Read more...

The era of cooperation, collaboration, and co-creation

A new and innovative idea for eliminating waste and getting fresh food to those living in America's food deserts...

FreshRealm is "a vision for the future of food made possible by a reusable shipping Vessel and a B2B2C cloud-based technology platform. The result is faster distribution, fewer preservatives, reduced food waste, and nation-wide eradication of fresh food deserts.

Historically, national delivery of fresh food has been impossible. With the invention of the Vessel, FreshRealm can get fresh food to people faster, fresher, more conveniently and to more places than ever before in history. If it has a mailbox, fresh food can be delivered there."

Learn More...

Welcome CT Chefs Association!

In addition to being a longtime volunteer at Foodshare, Jim Oswald, Executive Chef at the Sheraton Hartford South in Rocky Hill, has served for thirteen years on Foodshare’s Food Industry Council. As a member of the Council he has been a part of the discussion in creating our current Meat the Need and Retail Pick up Programs, as well as being instrumental in developing and hosting the Convoy of Caring.

Always thinking of ways he can help Foodshare partner with others, Jim invited the Connecticut Chefs Association to hold their monthly meeting here. As part of their instruction Chris Kube of US Foods, addressed trends in the industry and how chefs can best prepare themselves for the coming chicken and egg shortage. Members also took a tour of our warehouse followed by a discussion about the ways they as chefs can be a part of what we do. They then kicked off their commitment by donating their proceeds of their raffle!

Thank you so much to Jim Oswald and the great people of the CT Chefs Association!

A Food Industry Transformation

Food industry practices are constantly evolving to align with consumer wants and needs. Today, Baby Boomers wield considerable economic and political clout due to their size as a group. But their Millennial children and grandchildren have become the largest generational cohort in American history. By 2030, Millennials will outnumber Baby Boomers by more than 20 million.

As a result, projections show that sales of traditional shelf-stable and frozen foods will be flat at best by 2025, but the market for perishables will explode. Supermarket fresh prepared foods will lead the way in sales growth in the foodservice industry throughout the next decade by being one of the few segments able to appeal to both consumer groups. The right mix of fresh prepared foods has the potential to appeal to affluent guests’ demand for local, upscale and convenient offerings, while serving as an affordable alternative to restaurant meals for more price-sensitive customers.

Supermarket fresh prepared foods are projected to grow 7.5% per year, as traditional supermarkets retool their stores and offerings with a greater emphasis on the fresh perimeter of the store. In response, regular grocery stores will invest in more fresh prepared foods and on-site eating areas, self-serve stations, and highly trained expert staff like butchers and fish mongers.

Grant Dollars Available

USDA has $9 million in funding available to assist low-income individuals and communities in developing local and independent food systems. The Community Food Projects program involves the entire food system. Projects assess strengths and establish connections among existing food systems, resulting in improved food systems that support self-reliance. Grants are intended to help eligible, private, nonprofit entities in need of a one-time installment of federal assistance to establish and carry out multipurpose community food projects. Past projects include Philadelphia Green, which supports small-scale growers in their efforts to bring fresh, locally grown produce to the Philadelphia metro area, and RootDown LA, which is engaging Los Angeles-area youth in community gardens. Projects are funded from $10,000 to $400,000 for up to 36 months. All grants require a dollar-for-dollar match in resources. Applications are due March 17, 2015.

Source: USDA, 2/19/15, Federal Funds Available

A Conversation for Contextualization

Community Network Builders Jim and Bea
lead the ensemble on a tour of the facility.

 The Indian Ensemble Theatre of Bengaluru (Bangalore) along with Hartbeat Ensemble Co-Artistic Director Steve Ginsburg visited our Bloomfield facility today for a tour and a conversation with our President and staff. In honor of Hunger Action Month, the ensemble's visit to Foodshare is a part of a larger residency in the U.S., for the national premiere of the play "Thook (Spit)." "Thook" is a theatrical exploration of food insecurity, international trade, and hunger.

One of the ensemble members
speaks to the room.

The visit was a unique and educational experience for all - our guests learned about food insecurity on local and national levels, and walked around what was most likely the first food bank they've seen. In our conversation we also explained the significance of some of our programs, such as the Hunger Action Teams and the Summer Food Service program.

The Foodshare staff learned about food supply and insecurity in India, where the situation is different in a number of ways. These include their governmental system for distributing food and how the socioeconomic levels are much more clearly defined than ours are. One of the more striking points made was this: since the price of housing is higher than food, there is absolutely no way that an individual could have a place to live without also having food to eat.

However, that is precisely the type of situation we deal with every day with the people we serve. An individual may have a place to live, but they are splitting hairs to find money to feed themselves and their families after all other expenses are paid. There are many ways you can help ensure that no family or individual has to make a choice between eating and paying their bills, including joining the Movement, or donating directly to Foodshare to fund programs like SNAP Outreach and Mobile Foodshare.

"Thook" will be produced at the Carriage House Theater in Hartford tonight and tomorrow night at 7:30pm, and the performance will move to the Iseman Theater in New Haven next week. For more information on "Thook" and the FEEDCT Festival going on for Hunger Action Month, please visit the Hartbeat Ensemble site page.

Foodshare staff with our visitors.

Helping Partners Make a Difference

Foodshare’s Agency Relations department has been holding a series of self-sufficiency roundtables with our partner programs—food pantries, community kitchens, homeless shelters, etc. The idea is to help them develop programs that can offer one-on-one help to clients. The most recent roundtable, in June, was focused on budget coaching and was led by Denise Smith, Coordinator of the CT Money School with the Connecticut Association of Human Services, and Jim Goldman, volunteer money coach.  They spoke compellingly of the assistance available through CT Money School workshops, one-on-one financial coaching and one-on-one money coaching (for more urgent needs of clients and more short term than financial coaching).  Twenty agencies participated in that program. The next one, to be held September 18, will focus on employment coaching, and how agencies might implement such a program for their clients.

Are you involved with your local community kitchen or faith community? Become a partner with Foodshare here.