It’s no small task to supply a local network of food pantries and programs that serve more than 200,000 households with food each month.
In fiscal year 2024 alone, the Food Depository provided the equivalent of 101 million meals to our partner network, a record amount since our founding 46 years ago. We provided this food, as we always do, at no cost to our partner programs and the people they serve.
The Food Depository can do this thanks to the financial contributions of individual and corporate donors (who fund our food purchases), government support (through the U.S. Department of Agriculture), and a source that has become increasingly more important in recent years: commercial food donors, including retailers, manufacturers, growers and other local businesses.
A Food Depository operations worker assembles food pantry orders in our warehouse. Photo by Kaye Cooksey for the Food Depository.
With food insecurity and the cost of food both elevated in recent years, the Food Depository works strategically to maximize our procurement efforts to ensure we can supply enough for our neighbors facing hunger. A big part of this effort involves reducing waste within the food industry.
We recently talked with Lynda Rosenbush, the Food Depository’s director of procurement and business diversity, to learn why product donations are even more important now and how they benefit both neighbors and businesses alike.
Why are product donations needed in this moment?
The cost of groceries is elevated. We feel it every time we go to the store. But think about the impact of those elevated costs if instead of buying a few gallons of milk you’re buying 11 to 12 truckloads of milk a month, like the Food Depository does. When you’re buying a million pounds of an item and the price goes up five cents a pound, that’s substantial.
We strive to provide our partners with milk and many other staple items consistently – but our purchasing power can fluctuate, as can support from donations and the government. Product donations not only help feed families in need but also keep quality food out of waste streams and landfills while offering financial incentives to businesses.
Staff and volunteers rescue food from a local retailer to deliver to St. Martin de Porres food pantry in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood. Photos by Abel Uribe for the Food Depository.
We’ve made progress in the amount of food rescued from grocery retailers, but there’s more ground to cover. Now we’re turning our attention to other commercial product donations from Cook County-based food manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, growers/agricultural partners, packers, non-profit organizations and local businesses. It’s exciting because there are a lot of benefits for them as well.
How does donating products benefit food producers?
There are big financial and operational advantages. Donating food helps companies move excess inventory, saving them costly storage or disposal fees. For example, 10,000 pounds of food donations avoids storage and future disposal costs of hundreds of dollars and also benefits the environment.
Companies can deduct the cost of food and up to half their normal markup on donated products on their tax filings – savings and revenue that they would not have otherwise been able to recoup.
Commercial food donations help ensure our partner pantries’ shelves remain stocked for their guests. Photo by Nancy Stone for the Food Depository.
Donations also help companies fulfil their corporate social responsibility goals and demonstrate a company’s community commitments. Two key laws – the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donor Act of 1996 and the Illinois Good Samaritan Food Donor Act of 1981 – protect and encourage companies to donate healthy food.
Most importantly, these companies become our invaluable partners in providing hunger relief to children, women and men in need.
What quality control standards do you have in place to ensure donated food is safe?
We take careful steps to ensure all food, including donated products, meet the highest standards for food safety. For example, time and temperature control is a strict protocol. Our teams also verify the quality of the food at several junctures: upon receipt, when it enters our warehouse and when we prepare to deliver it to a partner.
We not only believe that food is a basic human right, we believe that quality, nutritious food is a basic human right and that is what we are committed to delivering to our partners and neighbors every day.
Food Depository drivers deliver food to Grace and Peace pantry in North Austin.
I want to stress that the quality and safety standard of donated products are not compromised. Most of the donated items that come to us are due to surplus production, discontinuation, minor blemishes, underweight packaging or approaching expiration dates, making them harder to sell. We are saving them from the landfill, where an estimated 38 percent of our nation’s food supply winds up. We’d much prefer quality food go to our neighbors who need it.
Are there certain food donations that you are especially interested in receiving?
Some priority items include fresh produce, meat and eggs, grains, dairy, legumes and nuts, and entrees and soups. We also appreciate receiving non-food household essentials and personal care products, such as diapers, laundry detergent, dish soap and feminine hygiene products as those are always in demand as well.
Can you share a food donation success story?
We are deeply grateful to have many generous and dedicated partners. It takes a vast community of donors to be able to support our neighbors.
Angelic Organics, a local organic vegetable and herb farm, encouraged their generous shareholders and friends of the farm to donate their excess fresh produce to the Food Depository. We are grateful to Angelic Organics – and their partners – for providing close to 26,000 pounds of organic squash and potatoes to feed our neighbors facing hunger.
Similarly, Bolthouse Fresh Foods, located in southwest suburban Hodgkins, has been donating fresh carrots to us since 2013. To date we have received more than 13 million pounds of fresh carrots from Bolthouse as they proudly support the community.
Food donations help us provide for the one in four families with children in the Chicago Metro area experiencing food insecurity. Photo by Kaye Cooksey for the Food Depository.
Donations such as these help us feed the one in four families with children in Chicago and Cook County experiencing food insecurity. Our mission to end hunger requires us to work together – including commercial food businesses. Our country produces enough food to feed everyone. The Food Depository can be a partner to reduce food waste while creating a stronger shared future for our community.
Does your Cook County company have food to donate? Know someone else’s that does? Help ensure that quality food doesn’t go to waste by filling out our Food Industry Donation Form or contacting Lynda Rosenbush at [email protected] with questions.
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