On a hot Monday morning in July, a Greater Chicago Food Depository driver hit the road with a truck full of food. Rather than heading to a food pantry, he was making our first drop-off at Green Era in Auburn Gresham – marking the beginning of a partnership that transforms food waste into sustainable energy and economic opportunity.
The Food Depository recently signed a contract with environmental and biofuels organization Green Era to handle most of our food waste (canned goods and food in glass containers are excluded). This includes produce that doesn't meet our strict quality standards, expired items and the small amount of kitchen waste we produce.
A sustainable solution takes root
While we've made tremendous progress reducing waste, some is inevitable when you're meticulous about food quality and over a third of our inventory is fresh, perishable produce. This year, we anticipate sending approximately 600,000 pounds of food waste to Green Era – approximately 0.375%, or less than one half of one percent, of the food we distribute to the community.
Previously, managing this waste was complicated and time-consuming, requiring three different vendors – including two different compost companies – and hours of staff time removing packaging by hand each week.
Inedible and expired food is loaded on trucks and transported to Green Era weekly.
Green Era changes everything. They accept our food waste packaging and all. Their advanced equipment automatically separates packaging from food, freeing our Facilities team to focus on more strategic projects.
Because Green Era is a small operation without pickup resources, unusable food is collected and stored throughout the week, then delivered by one of our drivers weekly – or more frequently during busy seasons.
Powerful transformations
At Green Era's nine-acre campus, a state-of-the-art anaerobic digester transforms food waste into renewable natural gas and nutrient-rich fertilizer. Some biogas flows directly into the local People's Gas grid, potentially powering stoves in neighborhood homes. Organic compost nourishes several community gardens and urban farms, growing fresh, nutritious food in the local community.
Green Era's evolution shows what committed local citizens can accomplish. What was once a contaminated city impound lot filled with illegally dumped trash is now a sustainable energy hub supporting approximately 30 permanent jobs. Green Era is an outgrowth of Urban Grower's Collective, a network of eight urban farms on 11 acres, predominantly on Chicago's South Side, focused on community healing through urban agriculture.
Green Era’s nine-acre campus in Auburn Gresham has state-of-the-art equipment for converting food waste into compost and natural gas.
The Food Depository has a longstanding relationship with Erika Allen, co-chair of Chicago’s Food Equity Council alongside Kate Maehr and co-founder of both the Urban Grower’s Collective and Green Era. She has worked with the Food Depository on our hyperlocal sourcing strategy, which has partnered with the Urban Grower’s Collective.
When Green Era began operations in 2023, Erika reached out to our Procurement and Facilities teams to explore moving all of the Food Depository food waste to their facility. Our counterparts at Northern Illinois Food Bank, an early Green Era customer, also helped pave the way by sharing their experience with Green Era and providing tips on safely storing compostable food waste until transport.
Full-circle impact
This partnership exemplifies the Food Depository's Impact Sourcing strategy – investing in local businesses that support our communities. Auburn Gresham has endured decades of disinvestment and faces food insecurity rates more than twice Chicago's average.
By choosing Green Era, we're not just disposing of waste responsibly, we're creating jobs, generating clean energy and producing compost that helps grow food in the high-priority communities we serve. Plans for a vertical garden and community education center at Green Era, targeted for 2027, promise even more opportunities for growth.
The Green Era team unloads food at their facility and will separate out the packaging.
"We are excited for this collaboration," said Javaun Price, the Food Depository’s vice president of Operations and Supply Chain. "When we invest back into the community, more dollars stay in that community and help create thriving wages. It's the right thing to do."
Our inaugural delivery marked the beginning of what we expect to be a long-term partnership. Green Era gives us an efficient, sustainable solution for food waste while directly benefiting the Auburn Gresham community through jobs, clean energy and local food production.
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