In landfills, food gradually breaks down to form methane, a greenhouse gas that’s at least 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. A recent report estimates that if food were removed from UK landfills, the greenhouse gas abatement would be equivalent to removing one-fifth of all the cars in the UK from the road.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that about one in nine people (or about 795 million worldwide) were suffering from chronic undernourishment in 2014-2016. Reducing food loss by just 25 percent would be enough to feed more than 25 million people every year.
All of that wasted food adds up monetarily, too. The average American family of four wastes $1300 to $2000 of food each year and the average American throws away between $28 and $43, in the form of about 20 pounds of wasted food, each month.
Friendship Donations Network's dedicated volunteers pick up fresh, nutritious food that would otherwise be thrown away from grocery stores, bakeries, farms, colleges, and gardeners.
Donations of fresh, healthy food are efficiently distributed to food pantries, free meal programs, and other community organizations for free, 365 days/year. Friendship Donations Network keeps good food out of landfills and redirects it to people who need it.
Buzby, J. C., Wells, H. D, & Hyman, J. United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service (2014). The Estimated Amount, Value, and Calories of Postharvest Food Losses at the Retail and Consumer Levels in the United States (Economic Information Bulletin No. (EIB-121).)
Grace Communications Foundation. (2015). What is Food Waste? http://www.sustainabletable.org/5664/food-waste
Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. (2013). Food wastage footprint Impacts on natural resources.
Grunders, D. Natural Resources Defence Council. (2012). Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill.