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Nonprofits and private platforms push prevention and meal recovery as complements to recycling
Summary
Nonprofits (Share My Meals, Meal Recovery Coalition) and private platform Too Good To Go presented models for recovering edible food and prepared meals, recommended donor guidelines, school policies and date‑label standardization, and gave estimates of recoverable meals and economic benefits.
Several witnesses described programs and business models intended to capture edible surplus before it becomes waste and to connect surplus food to people facing food insecurity.
Karen Lemon, board chair of Share My Meals, and Helene Lanctuit, co‑chair of the Meal Recovery Coalition, described an alliance of corporations, hospitals, universities, government and nonprofits that picks up surplus prepared meals and delivers them to nonprofits and families. Share My Meals uses volunteers and a barcode tracking system to document pickups and ensure food safety; the group estimated roughly 45,000 tons annually statewide are prepared meals that could be recovered — equivalent to about 75,000,000 meals a year — and said the coalition aims conservatively to recover 5,000,000 meals per year with coordinated effort.
Zach Shaben of Too Good To Go described the platform’s marketplace model for selling surplus retail and prepared food at about one‑third retail price through a pre‑paid “surprise bag.” Shaben said Too Good To Go has worked with nearly 1,700 New Jersey stores and that partners saw roughly $3.7 million in revenue recouped from surplus food. He and other witnesses emphasized prevention measures (markdown sales, inventory management) and standardized date labeling to reduce household waste and increase usable surplus for donation or sale.
Witnesses urged stronger statewide guidance on safe food donation and closer coordination between health inspectors, schools and donation sites; they proposed using model donation policies from other states, mandating shared tables in schools, and funding technical assistance for school food‑service training.
Why it matters: witnesses framed meal recovery and surplus marketplaces as complementary to composting and AD — prioritizing edible food recovery for immediate social benefit while recycling other food waste streams for climate and nutrient recovery.
