Rep. Pingree aims to tackle food loss, waste nationwide

PORTLAND (WGME) — As National Food Waste Prevention Week unfolds, U.S. Representatives Chellie Pingree (D- Maine) and Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) have relaunched the bipartisan Congressional Food Recovery Caucus, aiming to tackle food loss and waste across the nation.

“We’re doing everything we can at all levels to try to reduce the amount of food waste in this country,” Pingree said.

The caucus will focus on educating Congressional members and staff, supporting federal initiatives and promoting successful food recovery efforts nationwide.

Pingree highlights that 30 percent of food in the U.S. is wasted, emphasizing the extensive resources involved in food production and distribution.

“It’s the effort that went into growing it, it’s the transportation moving food all over the country, it’s the water, it’s so many resources that go into it and then we have that many people that go hungry every single day,” Pingree said.

In 2018, Pingree launched Congress’s first-ever Bipartisan Food Recovery Caucus. Her efforts led to the inclusion of provisions in the 2018 Farm Bill to establish a full-time food loss and waste liaison at the USDA, a composting and food waste reduction pilot program and the Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP) to reduce on-farm waste.

In Portland, Wayside Food Programs has been combating food waste and feeding those in need for over 35 years.

“For us, it’s Food Waste Prevention Week every week,” Wayside Food Programs Operations Manager Don Morrison said.

Just Wednesday morning, Wayside saved around 10,000 pounds of food from local grocers.

“We have a food rescue program, and we have two trucks out on the road every day picking up food from grocery stores, farms, food manufacturers, food distributors, we have trucking companies, any place that has food that’s gonna be discarded, but it’s still perfectly good to eat,” Morrison said.

The recovered food is donated to local food pantries, food programs, farms and more.

Elaine Fiore, co-founder of Food Waste Prevention Week, noted the significance of the initiative.

“The cool thing about it is it creates a space for people who may not be working together to all come together, raise awareness, learn from each other, take action on ways we can prevent wasting food,” Fiore said.

For those interested in donating foods to Wayside Food Programs, click here.

To learn more about Food Waste Prevention Week, click here.