Food Rescue Programs
Addressing food insecurity at local and global levels.
Emma VanderMeulen
MPH in Environmental Systems and Human Health
What does it mean to be food secure?
Having enough food is a privilege often taken for granted. For many individuals ensuring sufficient meals can be a major stressor that can negatively impact health. For a household to be considered food secure there must be enough food for each member of the home to lead a healthy active life. In the United States, 89.5% of the population in 2020 was considered food secure leaving 13.8 million households’ food insecure at some point during the year (US Department of Agriculture, 2021).
Food insecurity is not due to any specific food shortages. With the current amount of food production approximately one third is wasted to some extent (To, 2019). How can there be a surplus of food, yet households are still going hungry? Food rescue programs could be the answer to help redistribute resources to where they are needed most. Different programs have developed with the common goal to ensure everyone can keep themselves and their families fed.
Environmental Health Implications of Food Scarcity
Poor nutrition can have lasting impacts. Nutrition is a major environmental factor associated with epigenetic changes. Epigenetics is the study of how different influences from the surrounding environment interact and make changes to genetic material without changing the sequence. Depending on the changes being made gene expression can increase or decrease resulting in different outcomes or phenotypes (Hedlund, 2012).
The Dutch Famine of 1944–1945 provided the opportunity to evaluate the effects of starvation during pregnancy. Research indicated the children born, who were members of the Dutch Famine Birth Cohort, had increased risk of type II diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders (Tiffon, 2018). Under similar circumstances the Chinese Great Famine from 1959-1961 saw increased disease among those born to mothers who had faced levels of starvation (Shen, 2019).
Long term impacts like epigenetic changes should be considered when evaluating the burden of poor or low nutrition. Low income populations will be disproportionately impacted by these factors as they are more likely to experience food insecurity or lack of access to higher quality nutritional foods (Wolfson, 2020).
Current Policies and Research
Food rescue programs aim to redirect resources to those in need rather than sending surpluses to the landfill. This strategy is highlighted in the EPA’s Food Recovery Hierarchy at the second level “Feed Hungry People”.
Policies such as this encourage individuals as well as manufacturers, supermarkets, and farmers to donate. Educational and reference materials are very useful when analyzing our food systems and behavior. As food is generally a very personal matter, providing individuals with the ability to make informed decisions is an effective way at improving efficiency of the food system as a whole.
Evaluations of food rescue programs show that they can not only provide food for food insecure households but also help divert unused products destined for landfills. The Las Vegas Convention Food Rescue Program was studied for its initial year to see how effective redistribution of resources could be. By the end of the year 24,703 kg of food had been rescued from being wasted and 45,383 meals were provided for those in need (To, 2019).
Examples of Food Rescue Programs
Freedge (global)
Global network of community refrigerators for people to take and leave groceries as needed.
Sponsors of freedges are provided information on health and food safety while managing sites.
Communities build shelters for the freedges allowing access to refrigeration in a wide range of locations worldwide.
Freedge is also establishing leftover markets where restaurants can donate uneaten products.
Map of Freedge locations
Learn more about Freedge
PDX Free Fridge (local)
Local network of refrigerators and pantries in the greater Portland area.
Program also provides information to sponsors on health and food safety including proper storage practices.
Also provides support to build structures for refrigerators and pantries.
People can also cook meals to leave but must package and date appropriately.
Map of PDX Free Fridge locations
Learn more about PDX Free Fridge
Raising Concerns
Some critics believe that a majority of donations may be less desirable foods that are highly processed with less nutritional value. Due to longer shelf life and cheaper costs, processed foods do provide their advantages in the food bank setting.
Ethical debates seek to caution burdening food insecure households with lower quality nutrition. Some argue that resources would be better spent providing the means for food insecure households to participate in the marketplace allowing more autonomy over nutritional options (Roe, 2020). The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Benefits are one method for this; however, allocation and acceptance of benefits can be difficult and this method is not always a solution for lack of access due to other factors such as location.
A Ray of Light
Food rescue programs that allow better opportunities to donate fresh fruits and vegetables could help resolve some of the concerns surrounding the nutrition of donated foods.
As discussed above on this page, providing refrigeration at food donation sites provides a better opportunity for the preservation of nutritious healthy foods. Allowing wider access to high quality nutritious foods can help lessen the burden for those facing food insecurity and aid in reducing food waste by redirecting food previously destined for the landfill.
References
Economic Research Service Key Statistics & Graphics. (2021, Sept. 08, 2021). US Department of Agriculture https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/key-statistics-graphics.aspx
Christian, V. J., Miller, K. R., & Martindale, R. G. (2020). Food Insecurity, Malnutrition, and the Microbiome. Curr Nutr Rep, 9(4), 356-360. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-020-00342-0
Hartline-Grafton, H., & Hassink, S. G. (2021). Food Insecurity and Health: Practices and Policies to Address Food Insecurity among Children. Acad Pediatr, 21(2), 205-210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2020.07.006
Hedlund, M. (2012). Epigenetic Responsibility. Medicine Studies 3, 171-183. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12376-011-0072-6
Micha, R., Karageorgou, D., Bakogianni, I., Trichia, E., Whitsel, L. P., Story, M., Peñalvo, J. L., & Mozaffarian, D. (2018). Effectiveness of school food environment policies on children's dietary behaviors: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One, 13(3), e0194555. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0194555
Miller, D. P., & Thomas, M. M. C. (2020). Policies to reduce food insecurity: An ethical imperative. Physiol Behav, 222, 112943. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2020.112943
Mousa, T. Y., & Freeland-Graves, J. H. (2017). Organizations of food redistribution and rescue. Public Health, 152, 117-122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2017.07.031
Roe, B. E., Qi, D., & Bender, K. E. (2020). Some issues in the ethics of food waste. Physiol Behav, 219, 112860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2020.112860
Shen, L., Li, C., Wang, Z., Zhang, R., Shen, Y., Miles, T., Wei, J., & Zou, Z. (2019). Early-life exposure to severe famine is associated with higher methylation level in the IGF2 gene and higher total cholesterol in late adulthood: the Genomic Research of the Chinese Famine (GRECF) study. Clinical Epigenetics, 11(1), 88. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13148-019-0676-3
Tiffon, C. (2018). The Impact of Nutrition and Environmental Epigenetics on Human Health and Disease. Int J Mol Sci, 19(11). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms19113425
To, S., Coughenour, C., & Pharr, J. (2019). The Environmental Impact and Formation of Meals from the Pilot Year of a Las Vegas Convention Food Rescue Program. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 16(10). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16101718
Wolfson, J. A., & Leung, C. W. (2020). Food Insecurity and COVID-19: Disparities in Early Effects for US Adults. Nutrients, 12(6). https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12061648