The Telegram reports on Food Recovery Network chapters at the College of the Holy Cross, Becker College, and Nichols College. The Food Recovery Network (FRN) was founded in 2011 by students at the University of Maryland who recognized how much dining hall food was being wasted. Currently, FRN has more than 150 chapters at colleges…
The Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic has updated the tax incentive fact sheet for Massachusetts businesses that donate food. These updates incorporate recent changes to federal tax code that increase the incentive for businesses to donate edible food to social service organizations. The updated fact sheet is available on the Food Donation Guidance for…
In November, The Take Away interviewed Ashley Stanley of Lovin’ Spoonfuls, a Boston-based food rescue organization, about how food donation can help reduce food waste. Lovin’ Spoonfuls collects food that businesses would otherwise throw away and distributes to social service organizations. The interview highlights how local and state waste bans, like the Massachusetts Commercial Organics…
A blog post by the Harvard Law School’s Food Law and Policy Clinic details recent changes the tax code around food donations. Changes to the tax code allow for businesses other than C-Corporations to receive an enhanced tax deduction when making qualifying food donations, and make the deductions a permanent part of the tax code.…
An article in the Boston College student publication, The Gavel, describes the college’s food donation program. Every Bite Counts (eBC) is a student volunteer group that has been helping donate leftover dining hall food since 2005. Five nights each week, student volunteers package and label leftovers from dinner. The group works with Lovin’ Spoonfuls Food…
MetroWest Daily News reports on a range of food waste reduction efforts going on across the MetroWest region. The Massachusetts Commercial Organics Waste Ban, which went into effect in October of 2014, has motivated increased interest in diverting surplus food and food scraps from landfills and incinerators. The article describes examples of businesses and institutions…
The MetroWest Daily News published an article about The Food Recovery Act, which was introduced this week. This bill outlines a series of strategies for reducing food waste on a national level including expanding tax deductions and liability protections for businesses and institutions that donate food. Massachusetts, which implemented a commercial organics waste ban in…
The MetroWest Daily News published an article about the Food Donation Guidance recently posted to the RecyclingWorks website. RecyclingWorks is a program funded by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) to help business create or expand recycling, composting, and other waste diversion strategies. Since the MassDEP established the Commercial Organics Waste Ban in 2014,…
A recent article on the Sustainable City Network website features three large institutions that have implemented food waste diversion programs. The article describes the logistics and challenges that each institution had to address to collect food waste on a large scale. One of the featured institutions is Boston University, which diverts food waste from both their…
The Food Waste Reduction Alliance (FWRA) has created a Best Practices & Emerging Solutions Guide. FWRA is an initiative of the Food Marketing Institute, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and the National Restaurant Association. FWRA has three main goals: To reduce the amount of food waste generated To increase the amount of surplus food that is…
