Food recovery sits at the intersection of sustainability and food access communities in DC. If you want to learn more about how to prevent and divert food waste, we have assembled a round-up of some of DC’s most useful resources to learn about food recovery in DC. You can jump to a specific section using these links:
Apps and Technology
Guides
Infographics
Programs
Legislation
Apps and Technology
Here you will find a selection of online applications and technologies to help consumers and businesses prevent and divert food waste.
For Consumers
AmpleHarvest
Applications to find food pantries to donate excess garden produce
Amp Your Good
Crowd Sourcing technology for food drives
Eat By Date
Database that lets you search by food or category to find out how long foods last and how best to store them
Food Wise
Website to help you to plan meals and generate recipes based on your ingredients
For Businesses
Care to Feed
Food runner program to pick up donated food from restaurants only
Food Rescue DC
Food Runner App that coordinate volunteers to transport extra food from anywhere to food pantries
LeanPath
Application to help monitor and prevent food waste in a food business
Means Database
Database that finds local charities to pick up excess food from anywhere
Spoiler Alert
Application to help businesses manage waste
Guides
Here you can find educational guides to food recovery, as well as resources for reducing food waste
Capital Area Food Bank Produce Guides
Guides provide storage advice, recommended uses, nutrition facts, and other valuable information for many of the produce items Capital Area Food Bank distributes (in English & Spanish).
DC Food Recovery Working Group Resource Page
List of guides and resources for food recovery in DC for consumers and businesses
FLPC “The Dating Game: How Confusing Date Labels Lead to Food Waste in America”
Harvard Food Law and Policy (FLPC) publication examining how expiration date labels are misleading and cause significant food waste
Food Recovery Network Guide to Gleaning
A guide to setting up gleaning programs at farms, farmer markets, restaurants, etc.
USDA guide for Product Dating
Understanding differences between “Sell By”, “Best By” and “Use By” dates on packaging
Refed – 27 Solutions to Food Waste
Data-driven guide to food waste solutions
Infographics
Here you can find beautiful educational handouts, infographics, graphs, posters, and videos on food waste and recovery.
Save the Food
NRDC and the AD Council campaign to reduce food waste by offering a variety of resources from posters, infographics, social media resources and more.
Seattle Public Utilities Fruit & Vegetable Storage Guides
Infographics on storage best practices
Programs
Looking to reduce food waste at school or home? Here are a few educational and consumer food recovery programs you can participate in to help!
For Schools
Food Rescue DC
Food Runner App that coordinate volunteers to transport extra food from anywhere to food pantries
EPA Waste-Free Lunch
EPA developed the Waste-Free Lunch activities to help students learn how to reduce, reuse, and recycle items in their school lunches.
The Food Bus
Nonprofit that offers food recovery consultation to set up school food recovery programs.
Means Database
Database that finds local charities to pick up excess food from anywhere
For Consumers
Food-to-Good-to-Waste
EPA implementation guide and toolkit that aim to reduce wasteful household food management practices.
Food Recovery Verified
Food Recovery Network verification program to promote businesses that have food recovery policies.
Legislation
Are you a policy wonk, journalist, or informed citizen trying to understand legislation, regulations, and policies affecting food recovery in DC? We’ve brought together summaries and full-text of the some relevant laws here.
Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act of 1996
Protects any person and business donating food to a 501c3 or faith bath organization from all liabilities.
Summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Emerson_Good_Samaritan_Act_of_1996
Law: https://www.congress.gov/104/plaws/publ210/PLAW-104publ210.pdf
Path Act of 2015
Federal tax deductions for any business donating food.
Summary: http://www.chlpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Food-Donation-Fed-Tax-Guide-for-Pub-2.pdf
Neighborhood Assistance Program (NAP)
VA State Tax Credits for donating food.