Rescuing Food. Feeding People. Protecting the Planet.
Rescuing surplus food to fight hunger is at the heart of everything we do, and it's also one of the most impactful environmental contributions a community can make. Every pound we rescue is a pound kept out of the landfill, a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and a contribution to a more sustainable food system.
Our Impact
| Month | lbs CO₂e Avoided |
|---|---|
| January 2026 | 558,603 |
| February 2026 | 455,505 |
| March 2026 | 546,006 |
| April 2026 | 509,285 |
| May 2026 | 575,125 |
| 2026 Running Total |
What Is Food Waste Recovery?
Food waste is exactly what it sounds like: perfectly good, safe-to-eat food that gets thrown away instead of eaten. It happens at every level of our food system: on farms, in processing facilities, at grocery stores, in restaurants, and in our own homes. And the consequences go far beyond wasted groceries. When food is produced and never eaten, every resource that went into it (the water, the land, the fuel, and the labor) is wasted too. And when that food ends up in a landfill, it generates greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.
Food waste recovery, also called food rescue, is one of the most direct responses to this problem. Rather than letting surplus food become waste, food rescue organizations intercept it and redirect it to people who need it, keeping it out of landfills and putting it to its highest possible use.
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Production & Agriculture
Crops are left unharvested due to low market prices, high labor costs, and strict cosmetic standards that reject perfectly edible produce.
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Manufacturing & Processing
Surplus arises primarily from byproduct — peels, stems, bones, and trimmings not used in the main product.
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Retail
Grocery stores, big-box retailers, and food distributors pull items at or before their sell-by date, even when the food is still wholesome and safe. Date label concerns alone account for nearly half of food waste at the retail stage.
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Food Service
Restaurants, caterers, institutions, and corporate cafeterias generate prepared or surplus food that goes unsold or unconsumed. The majority of waste at the foodservice level comes from plate waste — food customers don't finish.
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Consumers
Households are responsible for the largest share of food waste globally, driven by over-purchasing, poor planning, improper storage, and misunderstood expiration labels.
Waste Not Want Not operates primarily at the retail and food service levels, working directly with grocery partners, food distributors, and food service providers across Northeast Florida counties to capture surplus before it ever reaches a landfill.
The Problem
The United States wastes a staggering amount of the food it produces. According to ReFED, 29% of the U.S. food supply goes unsold or uneaten each year. While a small portion is donated and more is redirected to other uses, the vast majority becomes food waste, ending up in landfills, incinerators, or left to rot. Overall, an estimated 60 million tons of food goes to waste annually, representing nearly 114 billion meals' worth of food and approximately 1.3% of U.S. GDP.
This happens at every stage of the food supply chain. Farms generated 16.9 million tons of surplus produce in 2024, more than 80% of which never left the fields. Manufacturers contributed 13.1 million tons, mostly from trimming and production line waste. Consumer-facing businesses, including grocery retailers and restaurants, added another 7.8 million tons. But consumers are the single largest source at 32.1 million tons, nearly 46% of all surplus food generated. Because they sit at the end of the supply chain, their waste carries the heaviest environmental footprint, accounting for more than half of the total greenhouse gas and water use impacts across the entire food system. In 2024, the average American spent over $760 on food that went uneaten.
More than 80% of all surplus food comes from perishables like fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy, seafood, and bakery items, which spoil faster and are discarded more often than shelf-stable products. It's worth noting that not all surplus food becomes waste. Some is donated, repurposed, or composted. But in 2024, about 85% of it went to disposal, which is why reducing surplus at every stage of the supply chain matters as much as rescuing what's already been lost. That's where food rescue organizations like Waste Not Want Not come in!
Surplus Food and the Environment
Surplus food in the U.S. is responsible for 3.5% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, consumes 15.5% of all U.S. freshwater, occupies 16% of all U.S. cropland, and makes up 24% of all landfill inputs.
Globally, the picture is even more stark. Food loss and waste are responsible for 8-10% of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, nearly five times the emissions of the entire global aviation industry, and occupy nearly 30% of the world's agricultural land, all for food that is never eaten. If food waste were its own country, it would be the third-largest greenhouse gas emitter on earth, behind only China and the United States.
The primary mechanism is methane. When food decomposes in a landfill, it releases methane, a greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than CO2 over a 20-year period. Food waste is responsible for 58% of all methane emissions from landfills in the U.S.
The EPA notes that more than 85% of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with landfilled food are generated before the food ever reaches disposal, during production, transport, processing, and distribution. Even though consumers generate the largest share of surplus food, the majority of its carbon footprint was already accumulated long before it ever reached their hands.
Surplus food places an enormous strain on natural resources. The freshwater consumed to produce it, the land cleared to grow it, and the fuel burned to transport it represent resources that can never be recovered once that food goes to waste. When you rescue food and feed people who need it, the resources that went into producing it actually fulfill their purpose. The water, the land, the labor — none of it goes to waste.
References
ReFED, Progress on the Plate: 2026 U.S. Food Waste Report (2024 data), refed.org
- EPA, United States 2030 Food Loss and Waste Reduction Goal, epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/united-states-2030-food-loss-and-waste-reduction-goal
- EPA, Sustainable Management of Food Basics, epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/sustainable-management-food-basics
- UNFCCC, Food Loss and Waste Account for 8-10% of Annual Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions, unfccc.int/news/food-loss-and-waste-account-for-8-10-of-annual-global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-cost-usd-1-trillion
- UN Environment Programme, Food Waste Index Report 2024, unep.org
