Lessons and Outcomes

The amount of fresh produce going through the food recovery system strongly depends on several factors, such as seasonality, personnel, and institutional connections among actors, policies, location, culture, transportation and availability of cold storage. Due to the myriad approaches to addressing surplus produce in specific contexts, teasing apart individual actors and relationships among the actors will enable quantification of system flows and provide a basis for further environmental, nutritional, and health impacts from surplus redistribution. (Feingold et al., 2018)

In order to create dynamic models of produce recovery and redistribution, actors must be mapped as specific farms, retail outlets, food banks, and other organizations. Each specific actor potentially carry not only an amount of produce but also an economic and environmental cost to growing, harvesting, delivering, and disposing of surplus food. (Feingold et al., 2018)

Accomplishments and challenges so far

Presented and discussed at the 2019 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting:

Accomplishments
i. Bringing visibility to the impacts of food recovery and redistribution within the Capital Region and the university
ii. Building connections across sectors, organizations, and agencies in the region
iii. Working across disciplines within the College of Integrated Health Sciences
iv. Data collection pertaining to produce recovered and redistributed at the Food Bank with partners
v. Engaged/trained students on a novel, multidisciplinary, and community-engaged research project

Challenges
i. Life Cycle Assessment requires extensive information and data from many partners about donated food types and amounts
ii. Data collection with and from a variety of partners, as well as noticeable gaps in the available data
iii. Institutional infrastructure must be in place to allow for successful research collaboration with external partners

Recent Publications

Jablonski, B., Casnovsky, J., Clark, J., Cleary, R., Feingold, B., Freedman, D., Gray, S., Romeiko, X., Schmitt Olabisi, L., Torres, M., van den Berg, A., Walsh, C., and Wentworth, C.(2020). Emergency food provision for children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic: Examples from five U.S. cities. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policies. doi: 10.1002/aepp.13096
Abstract: As lockdown school closure policies were implemented in response to the coronavirus, the federal government provided funding and relaxed its rules to support emergency food provision, but not guidance on best practices for effectiveness. Accordingly, cities developed a diverse patchwork of emergency feeding programs. This article uses qualitative data to provide insight into emergency food provision developed in five cities to serve children and families. Based on our qualitative analysis, we find that the effectiveness of local approaches appears to depend on: 1) cross-sector collaboration, 2) supply chains, and 3) addressing gaps in service to increased risk populations. [View publication]

Omolayo, Y., Feingold, B., Neff, R., and Xue Romeiko, X. (2020). Life cycle assessment of food loss and waste in the food supply chain. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 164.
Abstract: Addressing food loss and waste (FLW) globally is critical for both improving food security and mitigating environmental pollution. While there are numerous studies addressing FLW in terms of nutrition, food security, food safety, public health and the economy, there is only a small body of life cycle assessment (LCA) research aimed at understanding impacts from FLW. We conducted a literature review of LCA studies focused on FLW in the food supply chain (FSC) to ascertain the state of the science and identify the research gaps. We identified 22 original research articles that met our search criteria and spanned the four stages of LCA. Regarding the goal and scope, there were a dearth of studies focused on the top of the waste hierarchy (prevention). Further, we identified a research gap in studies that accounted for avoided production from food waste management in the overall LCA and distinguished between avoidable and unavoidable waste streams. LCA studies to date largely used a mass-basis as the functional unit and were limited in terms of spatial and temporal specificity. Within the life cycle inventory, most of the studies were conducted in Europe and only one study in the US. In addition, some of the studies lack data transparency. The life cycle impact assessment phase showed that most of the studies only assess global warming potential with fewer studies evaluating energy, water demand and human toxicity. Lastly, within life cycle interpretation more than half of the studies focus on at least one of the three types of uncertainties supporting more informed policy decision making.
Graphical abstract: [View graphical abstract]
[View Publication]

Feingold, B. J., Xue, X., Neff, R. A., Bozlak, C., Hosler, A. S., & Jurkowski, J. M. (2018). Introducing a dynamic framework to jointly address policy impacts on environmental and human health in a regional produce recovery and redistribution system. Journal of Public Affairs, e1859.
Abstract:Regular consumption of fruits and vegetables is associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. Access to fresh produce is limited for individuals and families experiencing food insecurity. Emergency food programs, including food pantries, are important institutions for assuring access to nutritional foods for this population, including fresh produce. Produce availability at such institutions is on the rise thanks to donation, gleaning, food bank purchases, recovery programs multiscale policy interventions. These efforts also have coupled economic and environmental benefits for producers and retailers as surplus food is redirected from the waste stream, where it would otherwise produce greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Although varied surplus produce recovery programs have been implemented around the country and the world, little modeling of potentially synergistic impacts has accompanied their implementation. Thus, there remains sparse understanding of system-wide joint implications economically, environmentally, nutritionally, and epidemiologically. The goal of this paper is to offer a novel dynamic modeling framework capable of assessing environmental, nutritional, and health impacts of policies and programs in the food recovery and redistribution system. This unique framework serves as a scientific basis for implementing best management practices and policies to improve the sustainability of U.S. food systems. [View publication]