A Guide to Minimizing Food Waste from Grocery Stores in Flagstaff

Jenna Austin and Devany Navarro

Purpose of Outreach Initiative

In Arizona, food insecurity; the lack of access to nutritious food, affects 15.8 percent of Arizonans, and 24 percent of children in Arizona in 2017. These statistics make Arizona the fifth largest food insecure state for children (Flagstaff Foodlink, 2019). In Coconino County 19.9 percent of residents experience food insecurity (Flagstaff Foodlink, 2019). While at the same time there people without access to healthy food, good and useable food is being thrown away at grocery stores every week.

We are really interested in acknowledging and using this excess and then wasted food in our community. The amount of good, usable food wasted each day is extremely frustrating and upsetting. Food waste and feeding as many people as possible is really important to us. It is not feasible to map out all the dumpsters around town and let people fend for themselves. It would be more productive to reach out to food providing companies such as Sprouts, Safeway, Bashes, Fry’s, Whole Foods, etc., and work to set up a partnership with a local food accepting organization, such as Flagstaff Food bank. Together we can donate the produce that would essentially end up in the dumpster. We know this is a huge project, but want to help feed more people and reduce food waste.

This paper is a full research/informative document of steps to develop a system to collect produce that is about to be thrown away from grocery stores in Flagstaff and take them to local homeless shelters. The following includes contact information of shelters and organizations in Flagstaff who could potentially accept and utilize the food, a list of grocery stores in Flagstaff who contribute to food waste, details and contact information of transportation organizations that could pick up and drop of the food, and sample letters to these entities. Essentially, these are the steps required to create a system to decrease food waste in Flagstaff so it will be easier for someone to develop.

Outreach to Local Food Centers

Flagstaff is determined to provide those in need with valuable human resources such as shelter, water, and food. However, because many of these local organizations are volunteer and donation based, it is important to ask where contributions can be made and exercise your personal privileges to meet those needs. The very first step in supporting these local organizations can be taken by contacting each and asking if they have a consistent source of fresh produce and healthy food. It is important to contact these organizations in a humble manner, remembering that you are trying to work with them rather than telling them how you are going to provide help. It is also important to have an open mindset in the case that an organization rejects your offer of contribution. Below is a table that provides information and contact resources of local organizations who could be seeking assistance.

Name of Location	Description	Contact Information
Flagstaff Family Food Center: Food Bank and Kitchen	This food center provides hunger relief and children’s literacy programs for the Flagstaff community. Flagstaff Family Food Center also has about seven other food related programs in which they accept and give food, including the Food Box Program, Free Hot Meal, Kitchen Door Sack Lunch Program, Non-Profit Agency Food Supply, Mobile Lunch Program, Food for Farms, and the Food Rescue Program.	Phone: 928-526-2211 Email via website: https://hotfood.org/contact-us/ Address: 3805 E Huntington Dr, Flagstaff, AZ 86004
St Mary’s Food Bank	This food bank works to decrease hunger by gathering and distributing food, while encouraging self-sufficiency, collaboration, advocacy, and education. They distribute food to 700 nonprofit partners in nine Arizona counties as well as initiating a Community Kitchen and Children’s Feeding Program.	Phone: 602-242-3663 Donations: 602-343-5636 Email via website: https://www.firstfoodbank.org/contact/ Address: 201 E Birch Ave, Flagstaff, AZ 86001
Sunshine Rescue Mission	Sunshine Rescue Mission is a Christian based rescue center, dedicated to serving full meals and sheltering homeless residents of Flagstaff. The rescue center provides a place to eat and take a walk with the Lord.	Phone: 928-774-3512 srmoffice@srm-hc.org Address: 124 S San Francisco St, Flagstaff, AZ 86001
Hope Cottage on Johnson	Hope Cottage is related to the Sunshine Rescue Mission, although Hope Cottage is specifically for women and children. This rescue mission is also Christian based, and provides shelter, food, and clothes for the people who stay there.	Phone: 928-774-3512 srmoffice@srm-hc.org Address: 2211 E Johnson Ave, Flagstaff AZ 86004
Flagstaff Shelter Services	Provides emergency shelter, access to meals, and basic living needs, including counselling and support. Food for Flagstaff Shelter Services is provided by Flagstaff Family Food Center.	Phone: 928-225-2533 hello@flagshelter.org Address: 4185 E Huntington Dr, Flagstaff, AZ 86001
People’s Pantry	Unlike traditional Food banks, People’s Pantry allows people to go in and shop, not just take a box of non-perishable food items home. People’s Pantry also provides perishable items such as fresh produce, milk,and meat.	Phone: 928-522-0111 Address: 2529 7th Ave, Flagstaff, AZ 86004

Outreach to Local Grocers

Chain grocery stores have developed nationwide providing fresh produce and options for organic and non-genetically modified. Unfortunately, many of these stores overstock their shelves with fresh produce, as a full shelf is more appealing for consumers. However, this leads to consistently clearing shelves of “bad” produce just to refill them for that full appeal, which heavily contributes to food waste. In fact, fifty percent of fresh produce is wasted when perfectly edible (Hazimihalis, 2018). To consistently keep shelves full of appealing produce, a shocking amount of food is disposed of in store dumpsters, which are too often locked. To decrease the amount of food waste, and reduce the growing number of 23.5 million Americans lacking accessible food, work must be done to motivate the following grocery stores to utilize their produce before disposing of it (Hazimihalis, 2018).

Name of store	Description	Contact Information
Sprouts	The first store opened in Chandler, AZ in 2002. Sprouts is a healthy grocery store offering fresh, natural, organic food. Sprouts is involved in the community by donating food, hosting community food related events, and donating money to their own Healthy Communities Foundation, as well as other nonprofits.	Phone: 928-679-6000 Address: 1560 S Riordan Ranch St, Flagstaff, AZ 86001
Fry’s	A local grocery store, part of the Kroger Company, supplying high quality food at low prices. Kroger is currently working on a project/plan to eliminate food waste within the company by 2025. Fry’s stores are often food donors to many projects across the state.	Phone: 928-774-2719 Address: 201 N Switzer Canyon Dr, Flagstaff, AZ 86001
Bashas’	An Arizona based grocer since 1932. Bashas’ is a local grocery store supplying fresh products at competitive prices.	Location 1 Phone: 928-774-2101 Address: 1000 N Humphreys St #112 Location 2 Phone: 928-774-3882 Address: 2700 S Woodlands Village Blvd
Safeway	Safeway is part of the Albertsons Companies, a local grocery store. Albertsons Companies has many ongoing programs supporting hunger, health and wellness, veterans, and youth.	Location 1 Phone: 928-779-3401 Address: 1202 S Plaza Way Location 2 Phone: 928-526-6116 Address: 4910 N US-89 Location 3 Phone: 928-774-3774 Address: 1500 E Cedar Ave
Whole Foods	Whole Foods is a health food store, dedicated to providing its customers with the finest natural and organic foods, as well as maintaining strict food quality. Whole Foods has a handful of programs directed at food and children.	Phone: 928-774-5747 Address: 320 S Cambridge Ln, Flagstaff, AZ 86001
Natural Grocers	Natural Grocers is a health food store carrying fresh, organic, and GMO free foods. Natural Grocers focuses on sustainability within their company. They also host food/sustainability events in stores for education purposes.	Phone: 928-779-4172 Address: 503 W Clay Avenue

Transportation of Food from Grocers to Food Centers

If successful in the process of finding grocery stores to give donations and food banks to accept them, you will need a system of transportation to pick up and drop off the food. Unfortunately, at this time there is no solidified organization that does this in Flagstaff. However, Louis Cupboard and the Food Rescue Program are great resources to contact and possibly expand their mission into a transportation initiative. Waste Not AZ is also a successful food transportation group in Scottsdale and could be interested in expanding to Flagstaff or walking you through the step-by-step process of how to start your own.

Name of Organization	Description	Contact Information
Louis Cupboard	This is an organization through Northern Arizona University. Louis Cupboard receives non-perishable food donations from Fry’s (mainly), and distributes the food to students and faculty on a biweekly basis.	Phone: 928-523-3636 Email: LouieCupboard@gmail.com
Food Rescue Program	This is one of the programs that Flagstaff Family Food Center is in charge of. They collect food from grocery stores, restaurants, and private donors.	Phone: 928-526-2211 Email via website: https://hotfood.org/contact-us/ Address: 3805 E Huntington Dr, Flagstaff, AZ 86004
Waste Not AZ	Waste Not AZ picks up food from various grocery stores and delivers perishable food the same day. They do not warehouse or store food.	Phone: 620-721-3454 Address: 170 North Granite Reef Rd, Scottsdale, AZ 85257 Email via website: https://wastenotaz.org/contact/
Borderland Produce Rescue	Boarderlands Food Rescue is the transportation between excess produce and distributing that produce to people who need it. Boarderland has many programs. Mainly, when a partner organization has excess produce they call Boarderland, then someone will go pick up that food. The next programs are distribution based, including veggie sale days and a weekly market. This organization collects 30-40 million pounds of produce annually.	There are 3 locations- Address: Laveen Village, AZ Phone: 800-551-6764 Address: Tucson, AZ Phone: 502-287-2627 Address: Nogales, AZ Phone: 520-287-2627
Maricopa County food System Coalition (MARCO)	Maricopa County food System Coalition (MARCO) is a group that works to support and grow a food system in Maricopa, that is equitable, sustainable, and thriving. MARCO is made up of volunteers and they host many food related programs.	For program suuport via Website: For Program Support

Policy and Liability

While doing this work, it is extremely important to know your facts. This includes policies and laws that are set in place to protect the unnecessary food waste seen from most grocery stores. Often, grocery stores lock their dumpsters and refuse to donate due to “liability issues,” but with the facts provided below, you can challenge those ideas and convince them otherwise. Having this support for your argument, you will increase your chance of convincing grocery stores to donate produce and other foods before going to waste.

The Federal Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act

This federal act and law directly targets and protects grocery stores for donating to non-profit organizations. Specifically, it protects you from civil and criminal liability in all 50 states of the U.S. This act was set in place on October 1, 1996 by President Clinton to promote the donation of food without liability risks (Feeding America, 2018).

The Federal Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act protects the donator from both “gross negligence” and “intentional misconduct” (Public Health Law Center). Gross negligence is important in this case, since the donated food or produce could be bad and cause sickness to the consumer. However, in protecting the donator from gross negligence, they are protected from liability of sickness from the donated food. Intentional misconduct is similar to gross negligence. In both cases, this act protects the donator from possible blame of sickness from the donated food. Informing the grocery store of this act will increase your chance of seeing their participation in this donation based effort.

Tax-deductive Incentives

With a growing need for donations among non-profit organizations, the government created a system where donors receive a tax break. These are defined as, “charitable tax incentives“ They are offered to promote charity based donations, like food and produce donations. Both tax deduction and tax credit can be offered. On a federal level, tax deductions are offered for charitable based donations, while state and local governments offer both tax deduction and credit (Enders). You can inform the grocer of this tax break, incentivizing them to donate.

Sample Letters

To a local food center or shelter:

Dear [Local Food Center Name],

My name is [your name] and I am working to bridge the gap of food waste and food accessibility in Flagstaff, Arizona. I am working with [insert the organization you are with if applicable] to reach a place of food equity and access in our community of Flagstaff through donation-based initiatives. The amount of food wasted each day is extremely upsetting on a personal and emotional level, which is what makes this work meaningful to me.

Flagstaff has multiple donation-based shelters, similar to yours, while many grocers toss their fresh produce out daily. We want to create an initiative that utilizes healthy food and produce before being thrown away and take it to local food banks and shelters. If you are interested in receiving donated food from our program, please let me know.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

To a local grocer:

Dear [Local Grocer Name],

Flagstaff has multiple donation-based shelters eager to accept food before going to waste. I want to ask you if you are willing to donate your fresh produce as an alternative to throwing it directly away. With the Federal Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, there are no liability risks. In fact, you could even receive a tax break from participating in donating to a non-profit organization. Let me know if you are able to meet to further discuss or are interested in participating.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

To a transportation assistant:

Dear [Transportation Assistance Name],

Flagstaff has multiple donation-based shelters and grocery stores ready to donate, but we need a form of transportation to connect these food sources. We want to create an initiative similar to yours, or even partner with you, to bring something like your work here to Flagstaff. If you are interested in giving me feedback, advice, or even stretching your program, please let me know.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

Works Cited

Enders, B. (N.A.). Tax Incentives: An Economic Basis for Charitable Giving. Retrieved

https://www.learningtogive.org/resources/tax-incentives-economic-basis-charitable-giving

EPA (N.A.). Sustainable Management of Food. Retrieved from

https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/links-and-resources-about-food-recovery-phoenix-area

Feeding America (2018). Protecting Our Food Partners. Retrieved from

https://www.feedingamerica.org/about-us/partners/become-a-product-partner/food-partners

Flagstaff Foodlink. (N.A.) Retrieved from

https://www.flagstafffoodlink.com/projects