TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) — A major grocery store chain is taking steps to make sure food doesn’t go to waste.
Through donations, Fry’s Food Stores provided at least 16 million meals to hungry Arizonans last year.
With all the food in your grocery store, have you ever thought about what potentially gets wasted? Whether it’s expired items or items that simply don’t meet fresh quality standards, Fry’s has a plan in place for them.
“Bringing awareness that there are still people in Arizona who are hungry and going hungry allows us to be a part of helping, and that’s important to us,” said Russell Peace, Fry’s district manager.
Our state throws out $9.5 billion worth of food every year, making us number one in the nation for food waste, according to a report by Waste Not Arizona.
That’s why Fry’s parent company, Kroger, has a food rescue program that tackles the waste problem by separating food into different categories.
We’ll start with food that’s still edible but doesn’t meet our fresh quality standards. These items will be donated to community food banks across Arizona.
“A perfect example is this salad – it’s still edible, it’s still got the expiration date, but it’s got some browned areas and we don’t want to sell it in retail. [price]”We want to make sure it doesn’t go to waste and make sure families in need can take advantage of this,” Peace said.
Peace knows firsthand the impact of this donation.
“My family has used the food bank many times and I don’t think I would be here today without it,” Peace said.
“Last year, Fry’s donated over 700,000 pounds of food to Southern Arizona communities through this program,” said Lou Medran, procurement manager for the Community Food Bank. “Without stores like Fry’s doing programs like this, we can’t do what we do.”
What happens to food that can’t be donated?
“Local farms can collect it and feed it to local animals, like cows or dairy farms,” Peace said. “The product that’s fed to the cows really helps keep it from going into landfills.”
The feed we give to our cows is guaranteed to be something the cows can eat, and we even have a separate category for dented cans and broken packaging — all toward our goal of eliminating waste in the state and helping feed Arizonans.
