Over the past year, FFEN partnered with 11 food shelves to test strategies for tracking and reducing food waste, funded by a grant from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
Food shelves improved their layout/design to provide better access to perishables like produce and learned new ways to merchandise fresh produce, helping get it into the hands of shoppers.
“It was an opportunity to bring strategies grocery stores use into a food shelf setting and create a plan of action,” said Katie Bull, FFEN’s Director of Programs.
As part of the project, FFEN developed a waste-tracking template food shelves can adopt. Grant funds also supported the creation of training videos (read the story here) for onboarding staff and volunteers. These resources align teams on food handling, merchandising, and distribution standards to ensure food is available throughout the day.
“The act of tracking those waste numbers in and of itself was illuminating,” Bull said. “It’s a great way to have increased awareness and visibility into what wasn’t getting used.”
Food shelf waste typically comes from spoiled perishables that come into the site or damaged items that can’t be distributed safely. Perishables like bagged salads may arrive before a weekend closure, only to spoil before staff return. By monitoring what’s thrown out, food shelves gain insight into trends and can take steps to minimize waste.
For example, asking shoppers to take extra items near the end of the week gets more food into the hands of shoppers who can use it while it’s still fresh. Reducing spoilage means more food gets to more people. Since different staff and volunteers work on different days, tracking waste also improves internal communication and ensures food is used efficiently.
“There were common themes in what and when things were getting thrown away,” Bull noted.
The project also encouraged creative solutions for handling unavoidable waste. Some food shelves partnered with local farmers to use organic waste as animal feed, while others worked with municipalities on organics recycling.
“These not only make for a great training tool,” Bull said. “They support the MPCA’s mission by helping people become better environmental stewards. Awareness is the first step.”
