Zero Waste Strategies (ZWS), a Texas-based environmental consultancy, is working to clarify legal misconceptions surrounding food donation laws and ensure potential donors are informed of the incentives they’re entitled to. Through this work, they hope to ease fear of liability for food donors and mitigate food waste by redirecting safe and surplus foods to food insecure community members.
In 2022, 88.7 million tons of food in the United States went unsold or uneaten, with 32.6 million tons ending up in landfills, according to ReFED’s Food Waste Monitor. And wasted food is wasted nutrients: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that uneaten food contains enough calories to feed over 150 million people each year, exceeding the approximate 35 million food insecure Americans.
Stacy Savage, Founder and CEO of ZWS, a company that specializes in waste reduction, first encountered the frustration of food waste when working as a food industry server in Austin. Throwing away untouched food while others nearby struggled to eat was “like a knife to the heart,” Savage tells Food Tank.
Now a zero-waste specialist known as the “Texas Trash Talker,” Savage was initially drawn to environmental activism by an Austin Chronicle advertisement offering an opportunity “to fight the man.” She spent nine years grassroots organizing for a nonpartisan environmental organization, contributing to initiatives supporting legislation on issues including electronic waste recycling and curbside residential recycling and composting.
Driving home one evening, it occurred to Savage that she had developed a unique network of government officials, waste management companies, and environmental activists. Savage saw an opportunity in the community she had built and, the next day, launched ZWS.
ZWS now helps businesses reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost waste. When conducting waste audits, a primary service offered by ZWS, Savage and her team pick through business’ garbage, recycling, and compost to generate a report analyzing the functionality and efficiency of their waste systems and tailored recommendations for improvement.
“Especially food waste,” Savage says. “If they have a food permit, that’s when we really get into the nitty-gritty.” ZWS helps businesses reduce and manage food waste with creative solutions like color-coded compost bins and staff trainings on the impact of food waste, which, Savage says, gives employees renewed empowerment and enthusiasm.
When food surplus is unavoidable, ZWS advocates food donations. Food donation has become a popular response to food waste globally, according to the Global Donation Policy Atlas, and is ranked by the EPA’s Wasted Food Scale as the next best strategy when food waste cannot be prevented.
In the U.S., and in Savage’s experience, however, fear of legal liability remains a barrier to food donations.
Since 1996, the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act has protected good faith food donations to nonprofit organizations that serve the hungry or food insecure. But the Emerson Act was often misunderstood, causing longstanding confusion among potential donors.
Twenty years after enactment of the Act, a Food Waste Reduction Alliance survey found that 67, 61, and 54 percent of manufacturers, restaurants, and retailers, respectively, were concerned about the liability of food donations.
To clarify and expand the protections under the Emerson Act, the Food Donation Improvement Act (FDIA) was signed into law in January 2023. The FDIA extends protection to donors like caterers and wholesalers, and makes it easier for businesses to donate food directly to those in need.
But Savage says that some businesses are still wary of liability, and they deem it safer to discard excess food rather than risk potential legal action and associated bad publicity. To avoid that, ZWS ensures its clients understand the protections that the current law offers. After analyzing clients’ food waste composition, ZWS advises on what to donate and how to do so safely.
ZWS also facilitates partnerships with local volunteer-run organizations and food banks that pick-up and redistribute food donations, helping clients ensure that donations are handled properly while in transit and in storage.
Educating clients on the advantages of food donations helps inspire additional interest and participation, Savage says. Donating surplus foods provides an opportunity for positive promotional exposure, and the possibility of earning a general federal tax deduction or, under some circumstances, an enhanced tax deduction.
Claiming a deduction is simple, Savage describes, but the key is good recordkeeping. ZWS helps clients track relevant information—including costs and the would-be sales price of donations—ensuring clients get the full deduction they are entitled to.
For Savage, diverting surplus food from landfills by giving it to hungry community members is the highest and best use of food waste, and the biggest incentive to do so is the opportunity to do the right thing. “People know what it feels like to be hungry,” she says, “but most people don’t know what it feels like to be starving.”
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Photo courtesy of Pawel Czerwinski, Unsplash
