Problems seen with surplus food distribution

Thursday, Dec. 23, 1999 | 11:08 a.m.

Local food recovery officials are encouraged that President Clinton is urging Americans to stop throwing away 96 billion pounds of food each year -- unsold restaurant meals that can be used to feed the poor in Las Vegas and nationwide.

However, Bessie Braggs, director of the local Community Food Bank, said until federal and private funding is in place for food banks and other groups to collect, transport, store and distribute good food donated by restaurants, it will be extremely difficult to implement such programs on a large scale.

John Van Hengel, consultant with the St. Mary's Food Bank in Phoenix who in 1967 developed the concept of food recovery, says: "If nothing else, this (Clinton's comments) shows that the government is paying attention and supporting the issue."

Clinton, during a Wednesday visit to the D.C. Central Kitchen, said: "In every community, civic-minded people ought to take an inventory of how much food is being wasted, where it is, how to gather it up, how to give it to the churches, the synagogues, the mosques, whoever else has a homeless mission that will take care of that food and get it out,"

The president said wasted food ranges from slightly bruised fruit to uneaten trays of lasagna at restaurants.

In 1996, Clinton signed the Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act that gives legal protection to entities that donate and redistribute surplus food. The law prohibits lawsuits from being filed against companies that donate good food or grocery products to charities by those who may get sick from eating it.

"What the president is saying is all good for organizations like our's," Braggs said. "But if I am to get a major food recovery program going, I'm going to need refrigerated trucks, equipment and a staff -- and that is expensive."

Currently, less than one percent of the Community Food Bank's business involves food recovered from restaurants. It includes meat products donated by noted local chef Michael Ty from Lawry's The Prime Rib on Howard Hughes Parkway and pizzas from Pizza Hut.

The Lawry's food is served to recovering alcoholics and drug addicts living in transitional housing programs. The Pizza Hut products are distributed to local churches who feed needy children in area programs.

"Donated food needs to be handled properly," Braggs said. "Even if a major local resort were to offer me its (unsold) food from its restaurants I just don't have the room to store or prepare it."

Braggs said the Community Food Bank is building a warehouse that will provide additional freezer space for food recovery.

"It has frustrated me for years that Las Vegas cannot get a community food recovery program going," Van Hengel said. "One is definitely needed there with the thousands of meals served (in hotel-casino restaurants) every day."

Clinton's comments came a day before the Agriculture Department was expected to announce a three-part program to help people and restaurants get into the habit of donating, instead of dumping, extra food.

As part of the Community Food Security Initiative that Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman launched earlier this year, his department plans to:

* Seek 2,000 commitments from businesses and nonprofits to help get extra food to hungry people.

* Issue a guide to families on how to get food stamps and other nutrition assistance programs.

* Issue a handbook, called "Waste Not, Want Not," that describes ways for people and restaurants with extra food to redistribute it.

U.S. Department of Agriculture figures show that about 27 percent of consumable food in America is thrown away each year. The government estimates that 130 pounds of food per person winds up in the waste stream. If recovered, it would have a $31 billion value and feed 41 million people.

About 1.5 billion pounds of food is rescued annually in the United States. Landfills spend about $1 billion annually just to plow under wasted food.

The Associated Press

contributed to this report.