Congressional Bill Would Prevent Food Waste & Encourage Donation

This month, Ohio Congresswoman Marcia Fudge and a bipartisan group of legislators introduced a bill to expand the Good Samaritan Food Donation Act – making it easier for farmers, retailers and caterers to donate their excess food.  Speaking on 90.3’s the Sound of Ideas, Fudge says without her bill, a discount grocery store, for example, might be afraid to donate food because of legal liability.

“So if at the end of the day, they have food that they want to be able to donate to an individual group or charity or just take to a nursing home, they now have the ability to do that,” says Fudge.

According to the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic, Americans waste 62.5 million tons of food each year while in Northeast Ohio, the Cleveland Food Bank estimates one in six residents are food insecure.