Rescue 30,000 pounds of healthy, fresh food for those struggling with hunger https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/proposals-2016/rescue-30-000-pounds-of-healthy-fresh-food-for-those-struggling-with-hunger https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/@@site-logo/sitelogo-75x75.png

Rescue 30,000 pounds of healthy, fresh food for those struggling with hunger

Additional Information
Used for	Lovin’ Spoonfuls is dedicated to facilitating the rescue and distribution of healthy, fresh food that would otherwise be discarded, using trained staff and refrigerated vehicles to efficiently to deliver this food directly to the community organizations and resources where it can have the greatest impact. This funding will rescue 30,000 pounds of nutritious food such as fruits, vegetables, dairy and lean protein for those struggling with hunger. Lovin’ Spoonfuls is committed to addressing the health, environmental, and economic impact that food waste has on our community.
Benefits	Lovin Spoonfuls will use the requested funds of $10,000 to rescue 30,000 pounds of food. This food will not only be used to feed disadvantaged people in the Greater Boston area, but it will also be saved from decomposing in a landfill, emitting harmful greenhouse gases. Agricultural activities, including food waste, are a huge threat to climate change at almost a quarter of the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions, according to the US EPA (2014).
Proposal Description	While 49 million Americans struggle with food insecurity, 40% of all food produced in the United States goes to waste each year. Lovin’ Spoonfuls facilitates the recovery and distribution of healthy, perishable food that would otherwise be discarded. Lovin' Spoonfuls picks up nutritious, wholesome food items from sources such as grocery chains, farmers markets and produce wholesalers and then distributes those items to local shelters, neighborhood food pantries and other meal assistance programs. Request It costs Lovin’ Spoonfuls $1 to rescue 3 pounds of healthy, fresh food, which yields an annual cost of over $300,000. The requested funds of $10,000 will help our operation rescue 30,000 pounds of food, providing 10,000 meals! Since we don’t charge nonprofits for the food, and are unable to charge the food sources yet, we are looking to the local businesses in communities we serve to support program operations. In addition to grants, Lovin’ Spoonfuls seeks individual and corporate support as well as hosts successful fundraising events to keep the program in operation. The fresh fruit, vegetables, lean proteins and dairy will be rescued from over 70 vendors and distributed to 123 non-profit partners. Some of the food source partners include Whole Foods, Allandale Farm, Baldor Specialty Foods, Boston Public Market, Blue Hills Bank Pavilion, Hannaford Supermarket, Liberty Mutual, Red Fire Farm CSA, Roche Bros, Siena Farm Store, Stop & Shop, Trader Joe’s, and Wegman’s. The funding will assist operations, covering food rescue costs including equipment, fuel, route planning, a portion of the driver’s salary, costs with improving program efficiency, partner training and building additional partnerships. Impact By offering healthy, fresh food at no cost to our beneficiaries, we ensure that all of our non-profit partners are able to increase the quality and quantity of healthy food for their clients, allowing them to focus their spending on other critical needs. With increased healthy food options, food insecure individuals are able to make healthier choices, which could help reduce rates of obesity, and diet related diseases such as diabetes across low-income populations. Our model also has a positive long-term impact on the environment, redirecting millions of pounds of food from landfills, thus reducing the amount of methane produced from food decomposing in landfills. Decomposing food in landfills emits methane, a greenhouse gas that is twenty-five times more potent than carbon dioxide. We also aim to increase public awareness of issues of food insecurity and food waste through this potential grant opportunity. Through our innovative model, we have the ability to serve as a local platform for Massachusetts to join the national conversation on food waste, which we hope will help catalyze real change on the consumer level and beyond. Evaluation We evaluate both our processes and our outcomes our through a variety of methods, both quantitative and qualitative. Our primary impact metric is measured by the number of pounds of food that our team rescues and distributes to our non-profit partner organizations. A cloud-based mobile inventory tracking software system operates on our food rescue drivers’ smart phones and is managed in the office by our Chief Operating Officer, Lauren Palumbo. With this customized software, we have the ability to track the specific type and weight of all donations that we receive and distribute each day. These metrics are closely monitored to review our impact, and to assess our partnerships and processes. This can also be used to identify areas of opportunity. By reviewing data our Chief Operating Director is able to determine how much and what types of food we are collecting from each food donor. For example, we may see that we are collecting lots of vegetables, but little dairy from one Whole Foods location, and vice versa at another location. We are then able to use this data to assess our processes at each location, confirm the departments in both stores understand the collection process, and work closely with them to identify solutions. When evaluating success and growth, we not only consider the number of partners we are working with, but we also receive qualitative feedback from both non-profit and food donor partners through annual partner surveys. These surveys provide feedback on our operations as well as demographic information from our partners, including data on populations they serve. This data has helped us ensure we continue to meet the needs of our partners, efficiently and effectively.