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Food Recovery Initiative

Strengthening pathways to connect food insecure residents with fresh, healthy recovered food.

ABOUT

There is far too much edible and healthy food in our City and the region that is not going to feed residents.

Boston, like other cities in the US, has a high level of nutritious food that is wasted, some of which is fresh and safe to eat, and could be addressing inequities in food access throughout our city.

With the skyrocketing cost of groceries, high levels of food insecurity amongst Boston residents, and the environmental impact of food that goes to waste, we aim to maximize the amount of safe and nutritious food that is recovered and available for residents to choose. By facilitating the donation and distribution of wholesome surplus food, the City of Boston can help meet food gaps and minimize the amount of food that ends up going to landfill or incineration.

food recovery assessment

Food Recovery Assessment Report

The Office of Food Justice developed a Food Recovery Assessment to evaluate the food recovery landscape in Boston and help identify interventions to scale food recovery, increase responsiveness to community needs and reduce wastage of surplus food. We engaged community members and food access and food recovery organizations, along with businesses that generate food waste, to shape the report’s findings. The assessment recommends strategies the City can pursue to enhance food recovery efforts, ensuring surplus, safe-to-eat, and nutritious food is redistributed rather than entering the waste stream. Together with our partners, OFJ is excited to move forward recommendations from the report over the coming years.

cold storage grant program

refrigerated truck

The Office of Food Justice is awarding Healthy Food Access through Cold Storage grants in fall 2024 to enable the storage and distribution of perishable food, including recovered and donated food. Cold storage has emerged as a lynchpin to increasing access to fresh foods, especially fruits and vegetables. Lack of refrigeration is a key roadblock to increasing access to recovered food that safely meets the health code and extends shelf life. Funding cold storage will help increase the volume of food that is eaten instead of wasted, will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from food going to landfills or incinerated and will also better the availability of culturally relevant foods. The grant's purpose is to fund strategies that expand refrigeration and freezer space throughout the cold chain to ensure food is fresh, safe and available to residents.

The grant application is now closed. Awardees will be announced publicly in December.

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