Food For All: Daily Bread Project Reclaims the Waste

CHRISTINA VEIDERS

MIAMI — Daily Bread Food Bank here operates on a simple principle: Reduce hunger by eliminating waste.

Some statistics indicate that 20% of all food produced in the United States goes to waste. To rescue wasted food, Daily Bread and Publix Super Markets, Lakeland, Fla., became partners eight years ago in a 30,800-square-foot reclamation center that has been providing a stable source of food and other products to Daily Bread's 800 affiliate agencies. About 3.5 million pounds of products from the center are distributed to those in need, said Judith Gatti, the food distribution bank's executive director.

The center also reclaims products for Walgreens in the region, which nicely complements Publix's food offering with the addition of personal products and cleaning supplies, said Gatti.

“It has worked out to be a beautiful partnership. We provide a service for them, and a portion of the food and other supplies in that facility is donated,” Gatti explained.

Most products are not reclaimed due to date sensitivity, but rather because of packaging and design changes, or because cases have been accidently dropped and packaging is damaged. Almost all product is usable beyond the “best used by” date, Gatti noted.

Besides the reclamation center, Daily Bread operates warehouses in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. The bank plans to distribute 18 million to 20 million pounds of food this year. That requires an operating budget of about $25 million.

Publix's partnership with Food For All has helped fund the food distribution bank, which has been in operation since 1981 and is the largest food bank in the state of Florida. Publix's Miami division has raised a total of just over $1 million through its Food For All drives since 1994.

Altogether, Publix and its customers have participated in Food for All since 1990 to raise over $15 million to assist in the mission to end hunger within its marketing areas and around the world, said Maria Brous, a company spokeswomen.

“This program resonates well with our associates and customers because the majority of the dollars raised stay within the local communities. In essence, you're making a donation to help your own community,” Brous said.

Gatti said Food For All has been successful in raising awareness of hunger, particularly around the holidays. “Food For All doesn't require us to do anything. It makes it very convenient for shoppers to pull a [donation] coupon and add it right onto their grocery list,” she said.

But the need to feed the hungry in South Florida surpasses Daily Bread's food resources. “We have 800,000 people living in poverty in South Florida, and 295,000 of them are children,” said Gatti. That means these people are in jeopardy of needing emergency food. To feed that many people for a year would require over a billion pounds of food. Food banks like Daily Bread are just one solution, Gatti said.

“Organizations like Food For All have stepped up to the plate to help with the surmounting needs of communities. They've been so supportive for so many years that we can't thank them enough,” she said.