USDA Says 20% of Donated Produce Discarded

September 28, 1999

A study by USDA's Economic Research Service shows food banks and food recovery organizations in mid-Atlantic states discard 20% of all donated produce because of gaps in their infrastructure. The groups need funding to reduce transportation costs and obtain more refrigerated transportation and storage space.

"Despite the booming national economy, more than three million American children live in households that suffer from hunger," says Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman. "We must do more to strengthen the nutritional safety net and help nonprofit groups and faith-based organizations feed the hungry."

Although the collection of perishable foods, especially fresh produce, is on the increase, donations of most other types of foods were flat, and there remains a large gap between the amount of surplus food available and the amount actually recovered.

Glickman says he has sent letters to farmers markets nationwide urging them to donate excess food to nonprofit, anti-hunger groups in their areas.

USDA will sponsor a national summit on community food security in Chicago Oct. 14-15 to highlight issues relating to food insecurity and hunger, help build new public-private partnerships, highlight best practices of existing anti-hunger efforts and general new commitments to fight hunger.

The entire report is available on the Internet at http://www.econ.ag.gov/epubs/pdf/foodrevw/jan99/frjan99h.pdf