Nationwide, 38% of the food supply is wasted, according to Feeding America. That equates to 92 billion pounds of food each year – or roughly 145 billion meals – that ends up in trash cans, incinerators and landfills.

It’s not just consumers putting too much food on their plates or buying too much at the grocery store (although those are problematic, too). Supermarkets, retail stores and distributors often throw away food that is approaching its expiration date or simply doesn’t look as good as other products. Stores even discard perfectly good food just to clear shelf space for the next truckload.

Food waste is a massive problem, one that persists despite the hunger crisis spreading in communities across the U.S., including right here in Southwest Florida where one in eight people – including one in six children – are considered food insecure.

For years, Harry Chapin Food Bank has redirected millions of pounds of food through its Retail Store Pick-Up Program, which has become a major source of food that eventually makes it way to the plates of neighbors experiencing hunger. Every week, the Food Bank collects shelf-stable and perishable food items from more than 140 retailers across Southwest Florida, including Publix, Walmart and Sam’s Club locations. Donations include fresh produce, frozen and refrigerated meat and deli items, baked goods, breakfast cereals, snacks and other nutritious goods that retailers planned to remove from store shelves. The Food Bank intercepts and redirects this food, bringing pallets of items to the warehouse for inspection, packaging and redistribution through a Feeding Network that includes over 175 agency partners.

The Food Bank also operates a Fresh Produce Rescue Program, going straight to farmers and distributors for fruits and vegetables that weren’t sold to retail stores. Perfectly good produce should never end up in a compost pile; this program ensures it ends up on a dinner plate somewhere in Southwest Florida.

Harry Chapin Food Bank serves 250,000 neighbors each month across Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee counties. Food insecurity should not be a problem in a community as affluent as ours... but it is.

Southwest Floridians should consider their role in protecting and preserving natural resources and the environment. This year, consider your role in the food chain and turn that into a promise to the environment, almost like a New Year’s resolution. Commit to cutting down your household’s food waste while also ensuring that nothing in your cabinets sits untouched before hitting its expiration date. Check the labels, and if it’s not something you’ll probably consume, consider donating it to Harry Chapin Food Bank or one of the 175 agency partners working tirelessly to end hunger in Southwest Florida.

Below is a list of the most-needed and most-requested food items:

• Breakfast bars
• Canned fish or chicken
• Dry or canned beans
• Canned vegetables and fruits
• Pasta
• Bottled pasta sauces
• Cooking oil
• Dry milk
• Peanut butter and jelly
• Rice
• Canned soups

About the Author

Richard LeBer is president and CEO of Harry Chapin Food Bank, Southwest Florida’s largest hunger-relief nonprofit and the region’s only Feeding America partner food bank. Visit HarryChapinFoodBank.org for more information.