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A nonprofit focused on rescuing perishable food items from being thrown out is seeking to partner with counties facing a state mandate to reduce the amount of solid waste going to landfills.
Volunteers for the Food Rescue U.S. chapter in Lansing spring into action when local retailers and restaurants have perishable food items at risk of going to waste due to overstocking, power outages or other unforeseen circumstances.
The volunteers load the excess food into their personal vehicles and distribute it to food banks and community kitchens throughout Ingham, Clinton and Eaton Counties.
The delivery takes less than 30 minutes, and the volunteers are ServSafe certified.
It keeps the food out of landfills while feeding local community members, addressing both environmental concerns and food insecurity.
Site director Valerie Lafferty said demand for food from the 40 receiving organizations exceeds the supply of donations, but many businesses may not be aware of the group’s existence.
“All they need to do is just call us and we can talk a little bit and either, you know, go sporadically, or set up a weekly schedule or whatever,” Lafferty said.
That’s why she hopes the group will be able to partner with counties, who are developing new Materials Management Plans meant to shift the focus from landfilling to more environmentally friendly practices under a 2023 law signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
“We have a proven track record,” Lafferty said. “You can count on us. We're like infrastructure, you know, so think of us. We’d be doing it anyway, but the idea is that maybe we attract more food donors because it's coming from more places.”
More than 2 billion pounds of food goes to Michigan landfills each year, making it one of the biggest sources of methane emissions, according to the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.
The state has a goal of cutting food loss and waste in half by 2030 as part of its plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
Lafferty says her volunteers have never missed an opportunity to rescue food, completing more than 2,500 pickups in around two years.
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