A Minnesota nonprofit is looking to create a new way to get food waste from local grocers to food banks across the state.
One in six Minnesotans are currently dealing with food insecurity and have been relying more on food shelves over the last five years.
It's a problem Simone Hardeman-Jones, founding executive director of the GreenLight Fund Twin Cities, is looking to solve by funding a new project known as Food Connect.
"What they do is they build profiles for each of those recipients and really seek to understand the organization needs of that house of worship or food pantry," explains Hardeman-Jones. "They also want to understand, you know, what their storage capacity is, what type of storage they have available. Can they accept perishable food?"
She says the ultimate goal is to serve at least 20,000 residents over the next four years and distribute 100,000 pounds of food.
Hardeman-Jones says their new endeavor could be the answer to cutting down on food waste at local food shelves.
"Food Connect might come across 12 pallets of bananas, but they don't want to necessarily bring it to the nearest food pantry," she says. "They really want to understand who can accept this, who needs it, and prioritize it in that way. And who can store it and keep it fresh. So it really helps to distribute food in meaningful ways."
Food Connect is also expected to work with both Hennepin County, Ramsey County, and Washington County Recycling and Energy on other food-related pilot programs.