Philly Market Wins USDA's Terminal Market Food Waste Challenge: Saves More Than 1.2 Million Pounds From Loss In 90 Days

One of U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) goals is to reduce the amount of food thrown in U.S landfills as waste. Food loss and waste in the U.S. accounts for nearly one-third — or 133 billion pounds — of the overall food supply available to retailers and consumers and has far-reaching impacts on food security, resource conservation and climate change. Safe and wholesome food that is wasted could help feed hungry people and reduce food insecurity in communities across the country.  Feeding America, estimates that in the United States, billions of pounds of wholesome food are rescued annually and that billions more could be added to this number.

As part of the effort to lead this change, the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA) Division in the Specialty Crops Program of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) worked with the USDA Office of the Chief Economist to set up and manage the USDA Terminal Market Food Waste Challenge. The challenge put wholesale produce markets throughout the U.S. in a friendly competition to reduce food loss and divert fruits and vegetables.

The terminal market challenge launched March 29, 2016, at the Maryland Food Center Authority in Jessup, Md., and concluded June 30, 2016. At the end, more than 1.6 million pounds of fruits and vegetables were diverted from landfills.

For being a leader in reducing food waste and winning the challenge, USDA presented the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market (PWPM) with a certificate signed by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. Of the 83 produce companies from seven different terminal markets that participated, PWPM had the highest percentage of participation throughout the 90-day competition. Its 22 produce companies diverted 1.2 million pounds of their fruits and vegetables from landfills.  

According to Sonny DiCrecchio, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market, the USDA Food Waste Challenge was especially important to their team in Philadelphia.

“We planned and built this market with the goal of reducing waste. We are proud of our state-of-the-art facility and hope that we have inspired other produce markets around the world to reduce, recycle, and recover food and materials,” DiCrecchio said. He explained that the Philadelphia market has its own separate recycling facility where they break down cardboard, plastic, wood pallets and other materials, and that they send produce that is unfit for human consumption to local farms to use as feed or compost. DiCrecchio said even the “ugly produce” that comes into their market is sold because many of their customers are chefs or smoothie bar operators who are not bothered by cosmetic imperfections in the produce.

For the merchants that occupy the market, the most significant aspect of reducing food waste is their ability to give back to the community and, DiCrecchio said, that made it easy to garner support for the competition. “Most important to us is that we can rescue produce on a daily basis and send it directly to Philabundance, the region’s largest hunger relief organization,” he said. According to DiCrecchio, their merchants “are a generous group who have given to Philabundance regularly for years.”

DiCrecchio said winning the challenge has sharpened the focus and deepened the commitment of the PWPM to reduce food waste. “It’s an eye-opener that food is the number one, largest component going into municipal landfills. This empowers us to continually look for ways to divert waste from the landfill and to redouble our efforts in communicating the importance of recycling, reducing, and recovering to our merchants.” 

The Terminal Market Food Waste Challenge supported the U.S. Food Waste Challenge initiative, which was launched by USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on June 4, 2013. The initiative called on stakeholders across the food supply chain – including producer groups, processors, manufacturers, retailers, communities, and other government agencies – to join the effort to reduce, recover, and recycle food waste. On September 16, 2015, Agriculture Secretary Vilsack and EPA Deputy Administrator Stan Meiburg announced the first-ever U.S. national food waste reduction goal, calling for a 50-percent reduction by 2030. As part of this effort, the federal government has partnered with charitable organizations, faith-based organizations, the private sector and local, state and tribal governments to reduce food loss and waste in order to improve food security and conserve our nation’s natural resources.

Through their participation in USDA’s Terminal Market Food Waste Challenge, produce markets throughout the U.S. showed their commitment to reducing food waste and helped more wholesome, healthy foods make it into the lives of Americans who need it most.

From Left to right: Bruce Summers – Associate Administrator, Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA); Travis Hubbs – Assistant Regional Director, PACA Division, Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA);  Yowei Peralta – Senior Marketing Specialist,  PACA Division, Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA); Elise Golan – Director of Sustainable Development, Office of The Chief Economist (USDA); Christine Hofmann – Marketing Coordinator, Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market; Dan Kane – General Manager, Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market; Rose Harrell – Deputy Director of Maryland Food Center Authority & President of National Association of Produce Market Managers

Source: USDA Agricultural Marketing Service