We wanted to share with you the exciting news that Governor Mills has issued an official Proclamation designating September 25-29, 2023 as Maine Food Waste Awareness Week! In particular, we’d like to thank the Maine Dept. of Education and the teachers, staff, and students who participated in our 2023 Maine School Cafeteria Food Waste Study. Their work enabled us to show the importance of food waste education in reducing food waste and improving student nutrition – while also saving money and fighting climate change. Their efforts helped generate food waste awareness and action in entire s ..read more

More information on this pilot is coming soon! The post Pilot 3: UMaine Orono Community Fridge (coming soon) appeared first on Food Rescue MAINE ..read more

FRM worked with the Maine towns of Portland, Waterville, Winslow, Readfield, Wayne, and Fayette to implement a community food recycling program. Goals  To measure the potential of a community food recycling program to divert food out of landfills. Methodology  Select a diverse range of Maine communities based on size and location. Identify community-based leadership for the food recycling program. Develop food recycling program infrastructure. Promote community food waste education program. Measure and track community landfill diversion of food waste and related cost savings. Identi ..read more

Goals  To help Maine businesses, organizations, and individuals understand WHY and HOW to donate food instead of throwing it away. Methodology  With so much untapped food donation potential in Maine grocery store chains, we originally wanted to work with them to increase food donations throughout the state. However, there was a lot of reluctance on their end, as they feared running into legal or financial issues along the way. These misconceptions made us realize that we had to create a tool that would enable food donors to be able to easily donate food and see the rationale for why ..read more

Food Rescue MAINE is currently working to develop a comprehensive map of Maine’s food system, organized by the pieces of a successful circular food system. This map will provide Mainers with critical information about the food system in their region. Data sets will include categories such as food recycling organizations, farmers, schools, cold storage facilities, food processors, and much more. Goals  To develop Maine food system infrastructure to meet the food processing needs of our primary target: Maine farmers and secondary target: Maine food system participants. To develop a proble ..read more

After Pilot 3 was completed, we had many recipes to upcycle food, but no knowledge about what products would be feasible to sell in store. Mainers Feeding Mainers, a Good Shepherd Food Bank program, did a crucial study to see what items would be marketable in Maine stores. Goals To develop a resilient local Maine region food supply chain (produced, inventory/storage, processing, transportation, retail). To reduce wasted food (nutritional, $ value) and related wasted key resources (water, energy, labor, soil). To reduce food insecurity and improve access to nutritious local food for all MAine ..read more

After discovering how many surplus crops farmers struggled to sell (pilot 2), we knew we had to figure out new markets for their use. Upcycled food products are foods (often surplus food or produce seconds) that are repurposed through processing techniques. Goals To expand the available markets for surplus crops. To increase the shelf life of food and make it more versatile. Methodology  We met with the USDA to see what the biggest food waste categories in Maine were. We collaborated with Kennbec Valley Community College’s food preservation cooking class. Local farms brought their surp ..read more

Goals  To help connect Maine farmers with surplus food to large, institutional customers. Methodology  Every week we reach out to Maine farmers and determine if they have any surplus food that they would like to sell. This list is sent to institutions that are seeking affordable food in large quantities. The institution can then pick up which surplus foods they want to purchase and where they will pick it up. All proceeds go directly to the farmer. Results  We learned that because surplus food varies every week, it is difficult to process traditionally. But, in cases like the ..read more

Goals  To reduce on-farm food loss by identifying profitable ways to use their extra food. The survey was aimed primarily at Maine’s fruit and vegetable farmers and sought to answer the following questions: How many Maine farms have a surplus? How much surplus do Maine farms have? How often do Maine farmers have a surplus? What are the most common crops which make up Maine farm surplus? How would Maine farmers like to handle their surplus? Methodology  We first developed the Farm Surplus Survey. The survey was sent in conjunction with several Maine farm organizations, such as Main ..read more

Goals  To create a hub for all of our information and resources for Maine’s food system. Methodology  Food Rescue MAINE’s website was created in the Spring of 2021. In its beginning stages, the website was simply a page explaining the basics of food recycling and was linked to a QR code in preparation for our first annual summit in 2021. This page was made in hopes of having resources available for our audience to view as a follow-up to the summit. Following the summit, we hoped that stakeholders would view the website and provide us with feedback – and that is exactly what happened ..read more