Curious Iowa: How do grocery stores combat food waste?

Studies from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources show that food waste has been the most common material found in Iowa’s landfills since at least 1998.

There’s many reasons why food is wasted, like exposure to pests or mold. Additionally, consumers may over-buy or cook too large of portions and throw out leftovers. At the retail level, a variety of issues may arise, like product damage from transportation or over-ordering.

What are grocery stores doing to divert food from landfills? And what happens to the food that doesn’t get sold? That’s what Marion Patterson, of Cedar Rapids, asked Curious Iowa, a Gazette series that answers readers’ questions about our state and how it works.

We spoke with grocers about the technology they use to forecast consumer demand and track short-dated products. We dug into the partnerships grocers maintain with food rescue organizations to divert would-be food waste into the hands of those in need.

How do grocery stores keep track of short-dated items?

Gina Molby, store team lead at New Pioneer Co-op in Cedar Rapids, told The Gazette they use automated and manual systems to track inventory and forecast demand.

Real-time inventory systems track when items are received, sold or moved. These systems help grocers more accurately anticipate demand, which helps them avoid over-ordering product and ensure that products leave the store before reaching the end of their shelf life.

New Pioneer Co-op also uses a manual tracking process for perishable items.

“Our teams log short-dated products in a shrink log and conduct regular perishable culls, checking shelves for items nearing their expiration date,” Molby explained. “These items are either pulled for donation, re-purposed in-house where food safety allows, or otherwise composted responsibly.”

  Buy Photo

What happens to unsold salad bar and ready-to-eat deli items? First, they are offered to staff to take home, Molby said, and excess is composted. The co-op partners with GreenRU, an organic waste diversion company, for composting. Molby said over 98 thousand gallons of food waste was converted by New Pioneer Co-op into compost last year.

Spoilage reports are reviewed weekly to identify patterns and ultimately adjust purchasing strategies.

Food waste diversion work extends beyond the backroom. For example, New Pioneer Co-op offers bulk foods so customers can purchase the exact quantities they need. They also offer reusable containers and home composting tools to support a more sustainable food system.

Why might food products be donated, not sold?

  Buy Photo

There are instances where food is not able to be sold, but it is still safe to consume. That’s where food rescue organizations like the nonprofit Table to Table come into the picture.

Table to Table is Iowa’s original food rescue organization, and it works with grocery stores, food warehouses, farmers and food processing organizations to receive donations. Table to Table redistributes food to food pantries, hot meal sites and shelters and nonprofit youth programs in Johnson County.

On July 18, Table to Table received a truckload of 10,000 cantaloupes. The shipment, which would have retailed for $35,179.20, had been rejected by the original customer.

“Essentially when they cut it open to test it, they could see that it was more ripe than they would want in order to guarantee that they could sell all of that at their stores,” Nicki Ross, executive director of Table to Table said. “So they rejected the entire truckload, but for us, we’ve already distributed half of that in three days.”

Through a partnership with Farmlink, an organization that connects farm products to communities facing food insecurity, Table to Table was able to give away the 36,000 pounds of cantaloupe. Lineage Logistics and Farr Transport worked with the nonprofit to coordinate transportation of the melons.

After a donation is received, food temperatures are checked to maintain food safety.

“It’s different when we’re not selling it. We’re giving it away to people who need it,” Ross said, “so that sort of customer piece doesn’t exist and that would keep that cantaloupe on the shelf for longer. We cut open a cantaloupe... and it was in beautiful condition.”

There’s a long list of reasons why food might be donated instead of sold and Ross said it’s not always because food is close to its sell by date. Sometimes too much or not enough of a product is delivered to a store. Damaged packaging can also lead to donations, as can general product rotation.

“They have a new order of green beans coming in, so they have to move this old one ... the rate they’re selling it, by the time the customers will buy it, it will be bad,” Ross said. “So they’re actually donating it sort of ahead of it reaching a sell by date.”

Ross recalled a labeling error leading to a donation.

  Buy Photo

“We collected, I think, 600 pounds of ground beef that was destined to a grocery store and when it arrived... they didn’t have the right branding for that company and so they called us and said they would donate that.”

In March 2024, Table to Table distributed 58,000 lbs of potatoes throughout Johnson County. The potatoes hadn’t sold by the time the farm was ready to move forward with the new crop.

“Potatoes last a really long time and so we helped pay Farmlink for the transport and they got it to us from Canada,” Ross said.

In an email to The Gazette, Dawn Buzynski, spokeswoman for Hy-Vee noted that the company partners with 19 Feeding America partner food banks that operate across Hy-Vee’s nine-state region.

“All of our stores donate food to hundreds of pantries and meal sites that are affiliated with the Feeding America network,” Buzynski said. “As we work to help those in need, we donated 4.6 million pounds of food in Iowa last year alone.”

Hawkeye Area Community Action Program (HACAP) is a Feeding America food bank that serves Linn, Benton, Jones, Johnson, Iowa, Washington and Cedar counties. HACAP coordinates with 182 food rescue partners. Large quantities of product are also received from donors like Quaker Oats, General Mills, UNFI, and US Foods.

The nonprofit distributes 12 million meals annually.

“And of that, 60 percent of that is donated ... the bulk of our food is coming from those food rescue and large donations we’re getting from corporations,” Kim Guardado, HACAP’s food reservoir director, said.

“Each grocery store is making an effort that they honestly do not have to make and it’s such a key contributor to their communities and how we’re able to combat food insecurity,” Aron Brecht, HACAP’s community food systems manager, said. “That goes for virtually every single one of them: Wal-Mart, Hy-Vee, Aldi, Fareway, Brothers Market, Jim’s Foods ... it’s definitely happening on a huge scale.”

In 2024, New Pioneer Co-op diverted 54,141 pounds of food to HACAP and Table to Table. So far this year, they’ve donated 25,496 pounds, Molby said.

“We have some stores that donate 100 pounds. We have some stores that donate 40,000 lbs every single month,” Brecht said.

  Buy Photo

How often do food rescue organizations receive donations?

The short answer is that trucks are picking up pallets of food donations daily, whether it’s HACAP, Table to Table or a partner organization.

Ross estimated that Table to Table completes 50 food rescue routes a week. Trucks go directly to the retailer.

“First of all, then they don’t have to get it to us, which is always going to be a barrier,” Ross said. “Secondly, they can expect for us to show up, pack all the food up, weigh it, deal with it and then drive it away and we will deliver that same day to all of our recipient partners, our food access partners, who are going to get it out to the public.”

HACAP either brings food donations back to a warehouse or distributes food directly to a partner agency. Brecht said the food is turned around within a day or two.

He said that they record the pounds of food donated “and then we have a reporting software that can then take care of all the tax stuff, whether it’s a corporation like Wal-Mart or a mom and pop grocery store, we can send a tax letter there.”

  Buy Photo

Food donations can fluctuate by time of year. Ross noted that with Johnson County being a university community, school schedules impact how much grocery stores donate.

Ross said that they see an upswing in donations in the late summer/early fall and late spring/early summer. Around holidays — even Fourth of July and Labor Day — Ross said that they see more donations.

“Right after Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s — even holidays like Fourth of July and Labor Day — we are getting sometimes twice as much food in the three or four days post-holiday as we did preceding that because it’s stuff that they didn’t sell for the holiday.”

Have a question for Curious Iowa?

Tell us what to investigate next.

Comments: bailey.cichon@thegazette.com

Sign up for the weekly Curious Iowa newsletter to read answers to reader questions — along with behind-the-scenes observations.