Facilitated by the Michigan Sustainable Business Forum, the Double Food Donation campaign is led by a council of community organizations and food system advocates from across the state. Senior Manager of Food Partnerships at Ottawa County’s Community Action House Krista Burgett is one of those members.
“There was a goal recommended back in the MI Healthy Climate Plan to have the state put together a food waste reduction roadmap.”
A goal of reducing food loss and waste from state food banks and farms by 50% was set in 2024, but Burgett says the campaign’s launch is timely with November’s Michigan SNAP benefits pause resulting from the federal government shutdown.
“When we’re planning all of our dreams with food rescue and all of our dreams with doubling donation in Michigan, we never imagine it being in a landscape where SNAP did not exist, and we really want it to be a ‘both and,’ we don’t want it an ‘either or’.”
Over 1.7 billion pounds of edible food are sent to landfills by commercial businesses or remain unharvested from Michigan farms, which could feed over 1.3 million per year.
The council hopes to cut those numbers in half by 2030.
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