Perishable-Food-Rescue Programs

Abstract

Food-donation programs operated in at least 130 cities in the U.S. in 1994. These programs, which vary greatly in size and how they operate, channel leftover prepared food from restaurants and other donors to soup kitchens and rescue shelters. Some food-rescue programs pick up food and transport it to human-service agencies. Others locate leftover food and manage pickups and deliveries, but do not actually move the food. Brokers, in contrast, pick up food in bulk from large donors and deliver it in smaller portions to recipient agencies or hold it for pickup. In the 1990s food donations have shrunk due to restaurants' cutting food costs and waste. The authors' survey found that food-donation programs are ill-equipped to confront this development and must therefore become more flexible in working with restaurants to acquire excess food and to reassure restaurateurs of their businesslike and sanitary handling of the donations.