Troubling Donations

December 13, 2016

I was having supper the other night with two AmeriCorps members who work in Southern Vermont. One of them works with the homeless. Listening to her I realized how grateful I was for the work that she and others do to try to alleviate to effects of poverty so ingrained in our wealthy nation. During the visit she noted something I had not given a lot of thought to—funding shortfalls at the foodbank.

Like so many nonprofit organizations around America, the Vermont Foodbank is reducing employee hours because donations have declined over the last several years. Indeed, since the 2008 recession, donations to food rescue organizations around the country have dropped, resulting in a reduction in hours of operation by 12 percent of these organizations.

Meanwhile, in 2008, national household food insecurity rates climbed to 14.6 percent, reflecting a 31 percent increase over 2007. These higher rates have been consistent since 2008 and rose to more than 15% in 2014, the last year statistics were tabulated.

In Vermont, the situation is even more grim. A recent study conducted by the Vermont Foodbank and Feeding America found that 1 in 4 people, or an estimated 153,000 people, in Vermont rely on food shelves and meal service programs to feed themselves and their families. Bear in mind that Vermont’s entire population is only 600,000.

I knew of the struggles of food recovery organizations in accessing the proper transportation vehicles and refrigeration storage; however, I didn’t realize that labor was also an issue. So, while those of us in materials management are trying to promote food recovery, there seems to be a growing disconnect as to how increases in food donations can be effectively managed by food recovery organizations.

Food Donations Conundrum

Foodbanks work with food manufacturers and distributors for surplus commodities, and both nonperishable and perishable donations—including meat, bread, and dairy—from institutions, supermarkets, and a growing number of restaurants and farms.

Like most foodbanks, the Vermont Foodbank supplies smaller community “cupboards”, soup kitchens and shelters with food. The Foodbank collects donated food, stores it in three warehouses located around the state, and delivers it to its local affiliates for distribution to those in need.

The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act, and the recently passed Good Samaritan Hunger Relief Tax Incentive Extension Act, are helping to spur increases in food donations. The Extension Act permanently extends the same donation tax incentives afforded in the original law to corporations, as well as small businesses, farmers, and restaurants.

State mandates on diverting food scraps from landfills are starting to have an impact on increasing food donations as well. Vermont’s Universal Recycling Law (Act 148) bans food scraps disposal under a phased-in timeline which began with the largest generators in 2014; a full ban, including household food scraps, is slated for 2020. The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) recently released its first “Universal Recycling Status Report.”  The 16-page report summarizes the status of recycling, composting, and food donation across the state; as of July 2016, it found, food donations grew by nearly 40%.

Disconnect Solutions?

ReFed has a number of recommendations for advancing food recovery around our nation. One is a call for foundations to provide low-cost infrastructure funding, along with grants for food recovery overhead and operational expenses. Another need is funding to map where underutilized assets, such as surplus refrigerator space exist within existing businesses or nonprofits, could be shared with food recovery organizations.

Governments can also assist, with funding and targeted infrastructure. The Town of New Paltz, New York, for example, has partnered with multiple key players in the Hudson Valley Food Hub to donate food to hungry people. It recently added a freezer/cooler at the Town’s ReUse and Recycling Center. The cooler is part of a food recovery hub that connects distribution warehouses with local food pantries. By providing additional storage, area pantries can manage distribution of perishable produce, reduce transportation and carbon dioxide emissions, and encourage additional donations from farms that overproduce or are gleaning.

And, what about the wealthy? As our path toward “less government” seems to be inevitable, will individuals and corporations step to the plate to fill the monetary shortfall of social and environmental nonprofit organizations? We shall see.

By Athena Lee Bradley