Beginning in 2024, SARE had a unique opportunity to lead a one-time food loss and waste grant program funded by USDA-NIFA as a part of the Community Foods Project program. The total funding available to awardees was $8,000,000, and the application window closed on June 28, 2024. Projects were selected through a competitive process. Projects are now underway as of October 2024.
Each of the SARE Food Loss and Waste grant projects has two main requirements:
- Projects must prevent or reduce food loss or waste in a measurable way, collecting data throughout the project.
- Projects must have a strong outreach component, ensuring that other efforts around the country will have resources when they begin similar work.
The program goal is to create pathways to strengthen food rescue and get surplus food to feed those experiencing food and nutrition insecurity; reduce food loss and food waste, such as by gleaning surplus produce on the farm or finding new outlets for uneaten food to bolster supply chain resiliency or improve human and animal nutrition.
The purpose of the program is to implement outreach, training and technical assistance efforts to build capacity for food loss and waste initiatives.
Eligible groups included tribal organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community organizations, gleaning and food recovery organizations, public food program service providers, academic institutions (1862, 1890, and 1994 land-grants), Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and other colleges/universities, who are focused on reducing food loss and waste in one or more U.S. states, or U.S. territories.
The program received a large number of high-quality applications from around the country, which were reviewed in a three layer, committee-based process that emphasized the potential regional impacts of the work being done.
Fourteen exceptional projects were selected for funding. They are a diverse group in geographic location, organizational structure and size, and in the part of our food supply chain their work focuses. Over the next three years, these projects will be ongoing, preventing or diverting food loss and waste, and creating educational and training materials to ensure even more work on this issue happens in the future.
Statewide workshops 2026
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), in partnership with Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE), is preparing to host ten statewide workshops on food loss and waste.
When food is tossed aside, so too are opportunities for improved food security, economic growth, and environmental prosperity. Food loss and waste occur for many reasons, at every stage of the human food supply chain. In 2015, the USDA joined with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to set a goal to cut our nation’s food waste by 50 percent by the year 2030. We have a long way to go before we meet our national goal, and our hope is that these workshops will accelerate work and progress toward this goal.
The purpose of the regional and state workshops is to build a knowledge base on local level activities and also build relationships across sectors to reduce food loss and waste.
Each Statewide workshop will engage state government, local government, Tribes and nonprofits primarily. Other relevant stakeholders would also be considered to participate (such as businesses, school districts, etc.).
Following each state meeting and regional meetings, SARE will compile a comprehensive report summarizing key findings, including successful strategies, best practices, existing strategies, gaps and actionable solutions at both local and regional levels. This report will be shared post-meeting to ensure insights are widely disseminated and can serve as a foundation for continued collaboration and progress.