Revolutionizing Food Waste: Emily Grant on Sustainable Food Recovery Initiatives

Can food recovery revolutionize our approach to food waste and sustainability? Find out as we sit down with Emily Grant, Director of Florida Operations for foodrecovery.org, who shares her incredible journey from urban planning to leading food recovery efforts. Emily’s story is rooted in community engagement, from her hands-on work in a Sarasota community garden to her strategic role with UF IFAS Extension's Family Nutrition Program. Her experiences have paved the way for a remarkable career dedicated to reducing food waste and supporting communities in need.

Get ready to rethink your food habits as we explore practical strategies for reducing food waste at home and the significant environmental impacts of these efforts. We discuss savvy techniques like freezing overripe fruits and flash-freezing vegetables, using food scraps to make stock, and the benefits of home composting. We also touch on larger systemic changes, such as policy implementation and curbside compost pickups, that can create broader environmental benefits and significantly lower CO2 emissions.

Tune in to this transformative episode and learn how you can contribute to a more sustainable food system.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome to Fresh Take, where we at Florida Organic Growers speak to food systems experts about topics related to organic and sustainable agriculture, healthy lifestyles and the environment. To help us continue our programs at FOG, including our podcast, consider becoming a sponsor. For more information on sponsorship, check out our Get Involved page on our website, wwwfoginfoorg out our Get Involved page on our website, wwwfoginfoorg.

Speaker 2: 0:26

Welcome everyone to our latest and freshest episode of Fresh Take. Chatting with us today is someone who I have been truly fortunate to get to know over the last year or so and is pioneering the way for our food recovery efforts as Director of Florida Operations for foodrecoveryorg, emily Grant. Welcome to the show. Oh, I'm so honored to be here. Thank you, lana. I'm thrilled to be discussing with you today One of the most seemingly complicated issues of our food system food waste and recovery, and how you have taken this challenge on. But first I want to know what drove you to this topic and where did your food roots start?

Speaker 3: 1:12

Great question. I think, like a lot of people I would think, sometimes you find your passion and your calling in somewhat of a meandering kind of way. I got a degree in urban planning many moons ago and thought that that was the direction I was going to take and ended up finding myself much more involved in other kind of community engagement projects and skipping ahead to a bunch of years. After graduating I landed myself in Florida. My parents had retired here and at the time I thought I was going to be doing all this traveling, saving money to do that. And then I got a job working at Whole Foods just to kind of make some money. And from there I thought I wanted to be a librarian and went down that path Again, weaving in that real love of community engagement. I had had previous work doing that and realized maybe the librarian thing wasn't for me.

Speaker 3: 2:13

And during the whole time that I have been in Florida going on almost, uh, seven years now I've had a community garden plot.

Speaker 3: 2:20

It's been the consistent part of all these changes in my life the same place in Sarasota, same community garden, and UF IFAS extension oversees a lot of the community gardens, and so at the time this was before the pandemic, I had reached out to the person running the garden and I said, well, I don't think I want to be a librarian, I'm not really sure what I want to do next.

Speaker 3: 2:45

And she said there's this job opportunity.

Speaker 3: 2:47

And so that ended up turning into a real job with the University of Florida IFAS Extension Family Nutrition Program as a food system specialist, and that is really where I feel like I got to merge this love of growing things, community engagement and seeing that everything is one large system right, so it's hard sometimes to tease apart the pieces when you're looking at the bigger system of the food.

Speaker 3: 3:14

You know the food world and, of course, as I was going down that rabbit hole, I was introduced to Means Database, and that's the same organization we rebranded at the beginning of 2023. I'm sorry, 2024. I'm losing track of the dates of this past year and I started partnering with Means Database and doing projects around food recovery because it all felt like things were coming together the food system work, the idea of supporting environmental efforts as well as feeding community, kind of all at the same time, and I loved partnering with them and lucky me in 2022, they had an opening for needing someone to oversee Florida related programs and projects, and so I applied to that and landed in the position that I'm in now.

Speaker 2: 4:05

Wow, well, congratulations on that position. That's a really big deal and I you know. For the folks that haven't heard of Means Database, I know it's now rebranded to Food Recovery. Could you tell us what that stands for and why it was created to begin with?

Speaker 3: 4:28

was created to begin with? Yeah, absolutely so. Means Database back in 2015 was formed by our two founders, maria Rose Belding and Grant Nelson. Maria Rose had been working and volunteering in a pantry and noticed that oftentimes there would be a huge quantity of particular items and not enough of something else, and oftentimes not being able to get the large quantity of items and not enough of something else, and oftentimes not being able to get the large quantity of items out and they would get thrown away. And so, as a result, she was like there's got to be a way to figure out when there's an excess of food, how to get that donated easily, rather than, you know, going on to Google and typing in pantries nearby and making phone calls right, because a lot of that is the system. And so Grant Nelson did the coding on the back end, essentially to create means database which stands for matching, access and need for stability and, as you can imagine, a lot of people don't necessarily remember the acronym.

Speaker 3: 5:26

So foodrecoveryorg, who we are now, really says exactly what we do, which is food recovery, and so the platform is there so that food businesses and vendors could be farmers, catering companies, restaurants, even pantries with excess and have a place to post a donation and that donation gives all the details of what the item is, how much it weighs, what is it exactly, when does it expire, and it sends out an email or text notification to nonprofits in the area who might be interested in it. So, instead of having to make a bunch of phone calls, the platform essentially does that for you, and a nonprofit can then claim those food items and, you know, be able to serve the community. So, whether it's prepared food items, maybe it gets incorporated into a lunch or dinner service, or if it's, you know, canned items fresh veggies, dairy meat that can end up being part of what the pantry is able to provide for the community, so that doesn't end up in the landfill. The extra food is going to neighbors in need. It's kind of like this great win-win.

Speaker 3: 6:35

So all of this started, like I said, back in 2015 in the DC area and then since then has grown. So we're in all 50 states and we have some Oklahoma, almost food hubs in Philly, new Jersey, a lot of parts of Florida, california, and then we do a lot of, you know, food recovery all throughout the country, including the palletized, really large quantities of food, so we can really recover anything from you know, five pounds of an excess set of bakery to 40,000 pounds from a warehouse.

Speaker 2: 7:12

Well, I mean it just sounds like a brilliant concept. I mean we definitely have a need for this, because food rates in this country we know is estimated between 30 to 40 percent of our entire food supply chain. It typically goes to waste, so this seems to directly impact that number and is a really big solution to this problem that has been around, I think, from the start of the industrialization of the food system. Right, Right.

Speaker 3: 7:43

The industrialization of the food system. Right, yeah, you hit the nail on the head. There is quite a bit of quite a bit of food waste, and that happens from the beginning part of the process, all the way through the end, right. So anywhere from if a farmer has too much of something and there isn't a market to buy, that can get put back into the soil, you know, and simply left to right all the way through the supply chain where maybe a delivery to a large box store wasn't on time, they can reject, you know, the entire load. So there's multiple parts within the the supply chain, from growing all the way through the end, where there's waste, and so we come in at the part of.

Speaker 3: 8:21

At the end, right, the food's been cooked, maybe there wasn't as many people served at an event, right, the farmer has all this excess and so we can partner with a gleaning organization to have folks come in and make sure that that can get donated and try and get it to folks when the food is still edible, right, before it maybe goes to animal feed or composting. But we want to do anything while the food is still good for folks to get that out to people because, right, we have this. We, on the other side, we have such high expenses, right when it comes to paying for food, and we know that folks really need it, and yet there's all this waste, right. So how can we merge the reduction of the food waste and get it to to folks who need it?

Speaker 2: 9:05

Yeah, yeah, and when I was working in the produce industry, I was witnessing all these pallets going into the garbage because of these very strict protocols about food safety and you know different requirements for produce to look perfect.

Speaker 2: 9:48

And that, to me, was what sparked my interest actually in going into studying food systems and then going kind of further into the nonprofit world. So this is something that I've been trying to wrap my head around for a long time in terms of how can we really fix this problem, because there have been other things that I've come across as far as biodigesters and things that might convert waste into liquid that goes back into our water systems, but there obviously is a need for diverting that food that is maybe has a bruise or something but can be consumed without a problem and it has really high nutrient density from someone for someone to benefit from. And having these channels food recovery as a midway for people to get access to those is super significant. So what are the other causes that you typically see for food waste across the supply chain that you typically see for food waste across the supply chain, see.

Speaker 3: 10:52

So if we start from the beginning, we'll start from like the seed point. I know that from the farmer's side, what I understand is a lot of it is based on, you know, their pre-planning for the season. And if there ends up being an influx, let's say, of pumpkins right, there isn't then a market for purchasing all those pumpkins. Maybe something changed globally? We know that that can be a factor of it. And so then all of a sudden left with all these pumpkins, right. So then the the waste from that standpoint can be right. It's too expensive to harvest all of that and there's no place for it, so oftentimes farmers just might let it roll back into the soil and then through the the supply chain, let's. I'll just go with the pumpkin narratives. The pumpkins get picked right and, just like you said, there could be a couple bruised that might be tossed automatically through the process of picking and sorting. So there can be waste on that side. There can be waste during transport, if, again, there's bruising, if the vehicle that was transporting it wasn't remaining within temperature, if the arrival time of the said pumpkins were late to the dock time when the driver was supposed to arrive. Sometimes that will be an entire rejected load, even though there's nothing wrong. It could have been even that, let's say, one of the big boxes of pumpkins broke in that truck. They can reject the entire load, right, when you and I both know that, yes, there's probably some bruised ones not worth saving, but the rest could be totally fine. And then right, and then it's, and then it can be in the grocery store. It doesn't move, it doesn't fit the criteria, just like you were describing, and can get wasted there. The grocery store may or may not have an easy way to make a donation or move that and have protocols in space. And then let's say it's Thanksgiving, right, all these pumpkins are sold and not all of them are eaten. So at home could be something that ends up being tossed unless someone has a compost at home. So those are. I'm just. Those are some very simple kind of examples.

Speaker 3: 12:59

But you can see that throughout the process, from seed to plate, there's all these places and areas where solutions can take place. And for us at foodrecoveryorg we're really focused on when, for example, that grocery store has too much right it's already landed in the store or it's already at a place and they don't know what to do with it from there. That's where we can come in to make sure that it isn't being dumped. It's getting to a nonprofit that's serving the community and we're getting to it, ideally, before it goes bad, right. And if it goes bad, although we don't necessarily cover that, the idea of being able to support it, going to a farm where there's animals for feed you know, especially veggies and things like that, that you know hog farms would, I'm sure, happily take or composting right.

Speaker 3: 13:55

Because the idea is, you do, you know people first animals composting, anaerobic digestion and then finally landfill. And we don't have a lot of systems in place to make sure that it is very easy for both, whether on the consumer side or the business side, you know, to easily have a solution for each of those things before the landfill, right, it's the easiest to just toss. And so finding ways to, you know, provide those solutions. We have one piece of that, you know. Provide those solutions. We have one piece of that. And again, that's the example of the excess after an event, the excess from a grocery store or a restaurant or a farm right, and getting that to people while the food is still very much good before it has to go to animals composting, anaerobic digestion or landfill.

Speaker 2: 14:48

Yeah, and I love the example actually that you provided with pumpkins, because, just as I imagine you know, restaurants have a peak season. I imagine food recovery might have a peak with some of those holidays where there's this huge demand for something like pumpkins around the fall and then there might not be enough people you know purchasing them and then they start rotting. So can you tell us a little bit more about why it's important to reduce this food waste and how folks at home could take action towards that?

Speaker 3: 15:24

So, in terms of the reduction part, there's a lot of ways that individuals can be part of it. One of the biggest ones is that I recommend people who really care about this vote, because the process of, you know, speaking up for whether it's local ordinances, whether it's state or nationwide these things really do affect us, and the farm bill, for example, is something that you know dictates a lot of different things. It's not just for farmers. It includes right access to SNAP. It includes all of these things. So I encourage homeowners and residents and everyone within the community to consider, you know, making sure that you're voting and you're staying kind of up to date with the things that are happening in your community, and then, inside your home or just wherever that you're living, to purchase based on your need.

Speaker 3: 16:19

I know it can get really exciting to go to these stores and buy mass quantities of stuff, but it can be really hard sometimes to eat through that, especially fresh products, right Before it goes bad. And then there's some solutions. Like you know, you've got too much fruit. It's starting to kind of go. I have a banana right now that I'm like all right, it's ready to hit the freezer, you know. So it's not going to end up in my trash.

Speaker 3: 16:43

It's a little too on the brown side for me personally, but I will love it in a smoothie. So you know, cutting that up and throwing it in my freezer is great. You can do that with veggies too. You can, you know, flash freeze stuff. You can keep the ends and stems of things and then make a stock. I always think, though, from the get go of really just hopefully buying what you need, rather than having excess or huge pantry where you kind of lose what's in the back of it, that can be really helpful. Even inside your fridge, you know keeping food items that need to be eaten and front. So you know, like, okay, this is a leftover, I should eat this first before I have something that's that's newer. So that right, first in, first out can be really helpful, yeah, in your own in

Speaker 3: 17:29

your own place. So, yeah, so you know, advocating, I think, is huge. Voting is very helpful Writing to you know, letter to your editor, things that can get in a wider scope if this is something you believe in. And then at home, besides those recommendations I have within your purchasing and your fridge and freezer habits, you know, if you can compost at home, that's great.

Speaker 3: 17:54

Not everyone can do that, not everyone has the time. Sometimes there's local, you know, smaller organizations, companies that can do pickups or have places for drop off, but the hope is right to curb it before it even gets to that point, so that there isn't so much leftover and extra to begin with. Yeah, and yeah, I mean those are. Those are some kind of concrete takeaways that that folks can do on an individual level.

Speaker 3: 18:20

I do believe that we, in order to really make some substantial change, that individual care and effort has to be looked at from a much wider scale. Where we've got and effort has to be looked at from a much wider scale where we've got, you know, policy, where we've got easy systems in place to you know, maybe there's curbside compost pickup, right, things like that that make it very accessible and easy for most folks to do it. That's when you really start to see some some big change. And yes, so that's kind of what I would encourage for you know folks to do on their on their own time and individually. Yeah, and yes, so that's kind of what I would encourage for you know folks to do on their on their own time and individually.

Speaker 2: 18:55

Yeah, and I want to talk about this large scale change and how foodrecoveryorg works. But before I get into that with you, I'd love to hear what are. You know what are the different things people could look forward to when diverting their food waste Like? What's the impact? What is the environment benefiting from? What are some of those things that people listening might not know much about?

Speaker 3: 19:22

So every time we throw away food, right, most of us are putting it inside of a plastic bag right, putting it at our curb, or throwing it away if you're at a restaurant, whatever that looks like, that's getting bagged up in plastic and then being taken to the landfill.

Speaker 3: 19:37

And although, yes, food of course eventually breaks down the challenges it's locked in between plastic, usually of some kind, and that's creating that CO2, the admission into our atmosphere which we know is causing and a part of climate change.

Speaker 3: 19:53

And so the amount of food we waste right is about 38%, is huge, and so, because of that quantity, there's quite a bit of CO2 being, you know, going into our atmosphere and causing and causing a lot of climate change.

Speaker 3: 20:13

So that alone, by reducing all of that, whether we're doing it on a large scale, right from, like, the manufacturing side to the home side, can make a huge difference and reaching some of the, the goals that we see on a global level right, national state level, of sustainability efforts, and people can very much be a part of that by doing that at home and not having, yeah, that biodegradable food items being locked into plastic and not really being able to be broken down and so Refed, which is a really awesome organization, has a calculator so you can even play around and see like, hmm, if I saved you know 300 pounds of food, like what does that equate to when it comes to that emissions savings? And so that's really fun to play around with. You can do mass. You know huge quantities. You can do small quantities, you can change it by from kilos to tons to pounds, and that really starts to put it a little bit in perspective of you know what that, what that savings looks like on a small scale to a large scale.

Speaker 2: 21:26

Yeah, and I challenge everyone actually listening to even do a small experiment at home for one week. If you put aside the food that you're wasting not your paper towels, not the plastics, but the actual food and weighing that every week, you could even do your own little thing at home with your family and see you know what your potential impact could be in diverting that waste. So that tool, refed, is a great one. I've come across that one multiple times and they have a really great system in place and algorithm, and so thank you for mentioning that. And I want to know, even for these larger organizations, how do you think they can make a bigger difference? And, especially with foodrecoveryorg, what is the process for them to get involved? How can they take that next step?

Speaker 3: 22:24

So I think for us speaking for foodrecoveryorg, the more businesses right, the more food businesses that are willing to donate, is how we can really start to see that chain. So whether that's right, from the manufacturing, the warehouses, to hotels that are catering and having constant events, including that in the policy for the business is awesome. So what I would love to see is and this is nationwide, of course I've got a Florida focus because this is my home but nationwide the more businesses that are able to get on board to make those donations. That is really what starts to be the catalyst. Finding nonprofits who want to receive food items is easy as soon as they hear from us. Oh, we can sign up for free, there's no cost. We can get notified when there's excess food Easy peasy.

Speaker 3: 23:27

The challenge is sometimes getting connected to the business side, for them to feel comfortable, for them to know that there is federal protection so they're not going to get sued for donating. We have the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Act and we also have the Food Donation Improvement Act and those cover businesses making those donations. They're concerned. Oh well, you know, we don't want to be sued if someone gets sick, not to worry. So that is a bit more of the uphill battle of finding those businesses that have the access, are willing to donate, introducing them to the platform, which, for them again, absolutely free for the nonprofits, free for the businesses they can create an account and then that allows them to create a donation right when they've got that access, to send out and share in their area. So that, I think, would be the biggest help for us.

Speaker 3: 24:23

And we're, you know, we're a small but mighty organization. I think we have seven full-time folks around the US and roughly five to seven or so part-time and, of course, some fabulous volunteers, and so there's a lot of folks who don't even know that this is happening. I mean, this was just a few years ago that I was like what is this food recovery thing, you know, and it took me through my own work in food systems to reach this point, and so, even if someone just wants to get the word out that this is something that is legal, it's safe, we offer a free platform, you know, for it, and there's a lot of great other food recovery nonprofits out there and I truly believe that it's a collaborative space. So if there's another organization someone knows about, oh my gosh, support them. Fabulous.

Speaker 3: 25:13

But the idea is, we want food out of the landfill and we want food that is still good to eat and be consumed to be donated. And so if that's with another nonprofit that does food recovery, oh my gosh, go for it. You know, nonprofit that does food recovery? Oh my gosh go for it.

Speaker 2: 25:31

If it's through us, fabulous. You know, definitely this is something that I preach all the time, which is that all of us are working in silos, it seems, sometimes in the food system, but yet we have very similar goals and objectives, and so merging our efforts and making sure that we're all kind of driven towards those same things it's all you know working together, is going to make our efforts be so much more impactful at the end.

Speaker 2: 25:58

So I love that you just mentioned that. You know there is no true competition in this. There's always an opportunity for collaboration in this. There's always an opportunity for collaboration. So that's something that's really powerful. And I love to know for the organizations that want to sign up do they, once they add, you know, the food that they'd like to donate? Is that something that they can do weekly? Do they have someone? Is there someone from food recovery that can come pick up this food? You know what are their responsibilities and what are some of the obstacles, or maybe successes, that you've seen in the state of Florida.

Speaker 3: 26:36

Yes, the first step, like you mentioned, is first getting signed up, creating an account and posting that information in the and it's a pretty, pretty straightforward posting with what is it right? What are the type of items? They can click on the categories. They can include the total weight. They can even for themselves track their fair market value. And this is really helpful because for businesses, when they are doing their taxes, they can go back and download. We have a downloadable spreadsheet and it'll show all the donations that they've made and they can use that spreadsheet right To tally the total, to tally the total fair market value and then be able to track that. So, going back to the post, once they hit, once they hit send, that then goes out into the community with either a text or email notification depending on what the nonprofit, how they want to be reached, and in some areas we're able to, we're able to help with the delivery portion. But the way the website works in and of itself is really to be like a matchmaker. So it's the matchmaker between the right, the excess food and that nonprofit. So when the nonprofit claims the items, they get an automatic email to say, hey, awesome, nonprofit, this is the contact information for the food that you just claimed, please get in touch. Here's the address, here's their, their contact information. And that is not given out until someone claims the items. So when someone sees a donation post, they're basically seeing, you know, the total weight, the type of food, but they're not necessarily seeing all the details, personal information address just yet until they send it. And then that email connects them and they're and they're there to you know, call up and say, hey, awesome food vendors, I just claimed the food. Can I swing by at four o'clock today to pick it up? Right and work through that logistics and a lot of times for newer companies who are doing this, newer nonprofits. I'm here in Florida to help walk folks through that process. I'm seeing and paying attention when they're making a donation so I can say, hey, did you get the automatic email? Are you able to get connected? And I'm just there to help be an extra hand through that process while they kind of get used to it.

Speaker 3: 28:55

And in areas like Orlando we've had huge success because we have a partnership with Orange County Public Schools and they have a sustainability pilot program with 21 of the schools in the district. They got USDA funding for that and it includes both the food recovery side as well as composting, and so these schools are doing both. And in that area, because of this funding, we were able to hire delivery drivers. So it takes the burden off of the nonprofit to go pick up. By having the delivery driver go to the, in this case the school, be able to pick up the food items and then drop it off at the at the nonprofit, this gives the opportunity to alleviate some of that. You know that extra part right To to pick it up, but that's not in every single part of the state.

Speaker 3: 29:46

I would love for us to have, you know, grant funding so I can have that everywhere, but a lot of it is just based on, you know, if we've gotten grant funding and we have a partnership that we can pay our, you know, a driver to go pick up, then we can offer that it's always free to receive food.

Speaker 3: 30:10

I'm here to provide that logistics, you know, as people are getting used to the system or signing up or seeing how the process works and making sure that that happens smoothly. And I think the biggest challenge is part of what I was sharing with the you know last mile piece, where nonprofits like, oh my gosh. We would love this food but I just don't have anyone to go pick up. We would love this food, but I just don't have anyone to go pick up. And so having that, that driver piece, and having that person, can be a huge, huge help. And getting access to you know more food businesses, I think is also the piece I would love to see, just more you know, there is enough food to go around, absolutely, there's enough access to be shared and it's getting in and access to those you know, to those folks, those businesses, to make you know, to make that happen.

Speaker 2: 30:54

Absolutely, and I love that you highlighted the ability to track the food.

Speaker 2: 30:59

So I know companies are always looking for ways to highlight their impact, showcase some data, put it in their annual report, and so this is something that is really easy and impactful tool of getting on board the, you know, the green train of working towards more sustainability efforts, showcasing your social corporate responsibility, and having an opportunity to really do this in an easy fashion and it sounds quite simple and I think that that's something that people are always looking for is just an easy way of making something like this, something that seems as complicated as food recovery, as simple as signing up on a platform and adding in, you know, some of your information and then having it match to someone who needs it. So it's really cool to see that and hear that. Even the achievements of the organization has grown substantially, even from 2022 to 2023, seeing a donation from 3 million jumped to 52 million pounds of food and supplies. That's huge. So I'm wondering you know what are some of the goals and priorities for the future and how does food recoveryorg plan to address ongoing challenges in this space?

Speaker 3: 32:28

It was a great jump. Out of that 50 million, 19 was in Florida. So I mean yeah, which is which is awesome, and kudos to you.

Speaker 3: 32:38

So kudos to the team too. I'd love to take all the credit we. We also have a bulk procurement manager that came on at that time and that's really where we started to see the big quantities of food right. So that's coming from the warehouse, that's the palletized amount of food, and so that made that big jump. And I think with food recovery it's a lot about those relationship building that we want to keep seeing.

Speaker 3: 33:06

I think William he's our bulk procurement manager probably dropped a hundred million, like okay, this year it'll be a hundred million, and I'm like oh that's a that's a lot, but we and we, we will, I have no doubt, reach that at some point in the future, if it's next to come, you know, and seeing things like out in California, where they've got state legislation in place that's requiring businesses to this, that again is really what's going to allow it to grow.

Speaker 3: 33:51

In addition to you know what we were touching on before about that collaboration piece and working with other organizations also doing food recovery work, there's quite a few out there that are already doing great things. How can we partner together so that even when applying for, you know, foundation money, we're coming at it together from, you know, two or three organizations to to help make that, you know, help make that happen. So, in terms of the future, and what we see is is just let's keep this growing and let's have, let's do, as much food recovery as possible, build those relationships, include other organizations and come at it together from a united front of this is this is how we can, you know, slowly, kind of help solve not only the environmental impact but, you know, a sliver of the food insecurity that we, you know, that we see.

Speaker 2: 34:49

You hit the nail on the head, emily.

Speaker 2: 34:51

I think that's exactly what is going to take us from point A to point B, and actually, as you guys are now in the Florida Local Food Project platform, we have a group specifically for food recovery that folks can join and try to learn more about the space and how they can even contribute to this or start food recovery processes in their organization, their community and so on, and so I think there's a lot of great opportunities popping up, and we're happy to jump on board too and have the opportunity to share more resources that fall in line with this topic.

Speaker 2: 35:27

So I really look forward to seeing that collaboration flourish and how people are going to be taking that next step in terms of recovering food that is perfectly edible and can be placed in homes or on farms and places you know, places that can truly benefit from that food. So, emily, I want to say you're truly an inspiration to us all for addressing one of the largest and most daunting challenges in the food system today, and we really appreciate what you do and can't wait to see how much food we can recover together and bring back to feed those in need.

Speaker 3: 36:09

Oh, thanks so much, Lana.

Speaker 2: 36:10

Yeah it's.

Speaker 3: 36:12

You're right, it is daunting, but it's not when you have, you know, amazing partners and people coming together and looking at solutions and, you know, being a part of that, it is definitely a community effort for sure, right? So I love, I love this work. This is the niche that I found, and I started the Florida food recovery coalition back in 2022. And the idea is to bring all of these people together, because there are so many awesome folks, nonprofits for profits and government who are doing this, and we we want to be able to support one another right and be there so that it doesn't feel quite as daunting and feels a little bit more I don't know if manageable is the right word, but a little bit more attainable you know, and that we don't have to work in silos and be alone.

Speaker 3: 37:02

Right, we can do this, you know, we can do this together.

Speaker 2: 37:06

Absolutely. I second that and thank you again, Emily, for being on our show today to shed some more light on this really critical topic and for everyone listening, I hope this episode inspires you to think twice about where your food waste ends up and how it can be diverted back to our plates through innovative and collaborative ways. Make sure to check out the foodrecoveryorg website to learn more about how you can be involved and connect your efforts with this incredible initiative. Until next time, save those food scraps and transform them into a delicious stock or even compost for your garden. Thank you for joining.

Speaker 1: 37:48

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