You may have heard recently that France passed a law prohibiting supermarkets from throwing away or purposefully spoil unsold food. French politician, Arash Derambarsh, is going beyond France, putting pressure on the U.K. and U.S. to follow suit.
"The problem is simple we have food going to waste and poor people who are going hungry" says Derambarsh to UK paper, The Independent.1
Since its inception, The Healthy Grocer has been a socially conscious business, recognizing a need in the community it could easily fill. At the beginning, The Healthy Grocer donated unsold food to food banks and non-profits. For almost a decade, we have partnered with local non-profit, Helping Hands Ministries of Harrisburg, Inc.
Almost daily, Helping Hands founder, Kathleen, pulls up to the back of the store, opens her trunk and returns empty baskets. In turn, staff members fill the baskets back up with unsold produce, bread, prepared foods from the deli and more. Boxes of foods are carefully slid into her trunk.
One of the many projects staff are tasked with at the store is checking dates and quality of products. When you know that what you are doing has a greater purpose than just another task, that you might be helping an under served population at the end, there is a joy in knowing that. Food we provide serves Helping Hands, who feeds the homeless and needy hot meals three times a week.
That's not where it ends though. In the past, we have even given torn leaves of lettuce, onion peels and other scraps from our produce department to customers with backyard chickens. After almost twenty years, we continue to find ways to cut back on waste, and help others.
- Susan Kiskis, General Manager
