Southeast Alaska Food Bank describes grocery‑rescue operations, urges donations and volunteers

Dan Parks, general manager of the Southeast Alaska Food Bank, told the Juneau Commission on Sustainability at a virtual meeting that grocery‑rescue — collecting perfectly edible food retailers would otherwise discard — is the food bank’s largest source and central tool for reducing food waste in Juneau.

Parks said the food bank runs grocery‑rescue routes Monday through Thursday, collecting from Foodland, Safeway, Super Bear, Costco and Fred Meyer and rotating other distributors, and that most of the food redistributed in the region comes from that work. "Grocery rescue is a big thing for food banking in general," Parks said.

The presentation summarized how the food bank operates and why some donations cannot be redistributed. Parks said the organization tracks activity in pounds ("food in, food out") and that public pantry hours are every Thursday from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., when the food bank serves roughly 100 to 150 families (about 300 to 400 people). The pantry and member services supply other local agencies, including the Glory Hall…