Food Waste vs Food Rescue

This week we traveled to Lithuania to meet with Simonas, director of Maisto bankas food bank. This food bank in Vilnius feeds the growing number of people who struggle to make ends meet. With inflation, higher food costs, refugees fleeing Belarus, and hard economic issues the number of people is growing with food insecurities. Simon has a vision to “Food Rescue” all the food waste from supermarkets that would otherwise be thrown out. Or reach out to farmers who would allow the food to rot into the soil. He has encouraged many grocery stores to give their almost expired food to his food bank where he will find ways to use it. He provides vans to promptly pick up food about to be wasted and transports it to his central location. 

We saw a warehouse full of pallets of donated food that gets sorted, bagged, and distributed on a daily basis. It was amazing to see the plan in action as food is moved from the store into the hands of those who need it and will appreciate it. Maisteo Bankas provides food for over 120,000 people every year.

Simon has been working on expanding this operation. He has a few paid employees but also gets numerous volunteers which help make this non-profit organization work so well. As we toured the  warehouse, we saw numerous people moving food pallets, others organizing boxed food, yet others documenting the donations. Stores require documentation to write off the donations. Simon is passionate about feeding large amounts of people. When he was much younger, he helped a charity collect food and this experience has motivated him to be part of the bigger picture to feed hungry people. He also believes there is way too much food waste. He is trying to educate grocers and farmers from tossing out food to repurpose it to get it into the hands of hungry people.

Simon then showed us a small but busy Kitchen in the warehouse where food is converted. They take surplus fruits and vegetables and convert them into soups, jellies, juices, and other bottled products. In the kitchen we saw 3-4 volunteers canning vegetables, others were making soups, and one also had cut up apples in a dehydrator for dried fruit bags. We saw food that may otherwise go rotten quickly converted into nutritious tasty food products. All this food is donated but he doesn’t like to see food go to waste so he figures out ways to utilize it all. He certainly needs help expanding his business so we are discussing ways to figure out the best way we can help.