{"id":93354,"date":"2019-06-18T20:00:06","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T20:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/what-happens-to-food-grocery-stores-cant-sell\/"},"modified":"2019-06-18T20:00:06","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T20:00:06","slug":"what-happens-to-food-grocery-stores-cant-sell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/what-happens-to-food-grocery-stores-cant-sell\/","title":{"rendered":"What happens to food grocery stores can\u2019t sell?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Durango
Durango Food Bank Executive Director Sarah Smith said the organization collects and repurposes about 300,000 pounds of food annually to feed families and help farmers.<\/span>Bret Hauff\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Most of the food that ends up in Durango grocery stores is shipped from all over the world. But not all the food makes it to Southwest Colorado unscathed, and stores are often reluctant, or restricted, from selling damaged edible products.<\/p>\n

Cue Durango Food Bank and its three-decades-old Food Rescue Program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout the Food Rescue Program, the Food Bank would not exist in its current capacity,\u201d said Sarah Smith, executive director of the Durango Food Bank. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t purchase the amount of food we bring in. We\u2019re getting 300,000 pounds of food from grocers each year.\u201d<\/p>\n

A variety diet<\/div>\n

Durango Food Bank staff pick up damaged and aging foods \u2013 including a box of bagged cereal with a ripped corner or meat frozen just before its expiration date \u2013 from City Market, Albertsons, Durango Natural Foods, Nature\u2019s Oasis and Walmart every morning, Monday through Saturday, Smith said.<\/p>\n

Durango Natural Foods Produce Manager Madison \u201cMads\u201d Root said in the 1\u00bd years he has worked at the store, on average, he donates anywhere from 10 to 15 pounds of produce per week to Durango Food Bank. The store usually donates goods that \u201cdon\u2019t look quite as presentable,\u201d Root said.<\/p>\n

A grocery store once ordered too much corned beef roast for St. Patrick\u2019s Day, and the store donated it to the Food Bank, Smith said. But most of the time, it is food that grocery stores can\u2019t sell that is donated, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBruised bananas; sometimes things get nicks, bruises or dings,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThey send dented cans or discontinued products. Canned goods all the way to frozen foods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durango Food Bank receives anywhere from 100 to 200 pounds of unsellable pastries each day, Smith said. Sometimes, they will get up to 600 pounds of produce in a day \u2013 but each day is different and it\u2019s not all fit for human consumption.<\/p>\n

Produce sold to consumers in bulk \u2013 bags of apples, tomatoes, oranges or potatoes, for example \u2013 may have one or two spoiled fruits or vegetables in a package full of edible food. Grocers can\u2019t sell that, so they give it to the Durango Food Bank, where volunteers sort the ripe from the rotten, Smith said.<\/p>\n

A hungry household<\/div>\n

Volunteers may remove wilted leaves from iceberg lettuce to reveal its fresh and edible core, Smith said. Putrid pears or moldy mangoes get composted or, if the produce isn\u2019t too far gone, redistributed as feed to support local animal agriculture, Smith said.<\/p>\n

The first priority for any food that comes through the Food Bank\u2019s doors is human consumption, Smith said. But finding the balance between feeding as many people as possible and providing a product that people feel good about eating is often difficult for the organization, she said.<\/p>\n

Deciding what is fit for human consumption is further complicated by the range of people who go to the Food Bank for ingredients to cook at home, Smith said. The Food Bank can see more than 100 households in a week; about 12% of people in La Plata County don\u2019t have reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food, Smith said.<\/p>\n

Some may be looking for store-quality food and others might be comfortable picking through the animal feed basket.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a hard balance when we get stuff deemed unusable by the store,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIt\u2019s all a matter of trying to train volunteers. The best advice I give them: \u2018If you wouldn\u2019t feel good about eating something, then throw it out.\u2019 \u2026 We try to eliminate the mindset that \u2018they\u2019re hungry, so they\u2019ll eat anything,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Most people getting goods from the Durango Food Bank have fallen on hard times, Smith said. Those displaced by the 416 Fire and those in construction who couldn\u2019t find work during the snow-heavy 2018-19 winter season used the Food Bank for a couple of months, she said. But once firefighters doused the blaze and the snow melted, she didn\u2019t see those people again.<\/p>\n

Seniors on a fixed income are often more reliant on the Food Bank, coming in month after month, and families with children receiving free and reduced-price lunches who are out of school for the summer may use the Food Bank between June and August, she said.<\/p>\n

A waste-less world<\/div>\n

A goal to reduce waste, in part, drives the Food Rescue Program, Smith said. Whatever isn\u2019t given to humans goes to animals, and whatever animals don\u2019t eat gets composted, she said. The Durango Food Bank uses the compost it makes to fertilize its community garden, she said.<\/p>\n

Root said he\u2019s not surprised Durango Natural Foods donates what it can\u2019t or won\u2019t sell to the Food Bank. It is the co-op\u2019s mission to reduce waste and provide an alternative grocery experience, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe (grocery) system seems a little bit flawed as far as waste to begin with,\u201d Root said. \u201cIf we can fight that within the system \u2013 the grocery system \u2013 we can use the format of a regular grocery store to give people food, but try to do it our way, making change within the guidelines that society let\u2019s us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Durango Food Bank repurposes 300,000 pounds of unmarketable goods<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5738,6002,5740,5736,5735,5741],"tags":[21,438,13,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-93354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cortez","category-food-news","category-frontpage-lead","category-local-news","category-news","category-newsletter","tag-cortez","tag-food","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93354"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=93354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}