Putting Food to Good Use

It's a staggering statistic: 40 million Americans do not have enough to eat every day while 40 per cent of food in the U.S. goes into dumpsters as waste.

One young woman, who cried when she had to throw out expired products at her church's food pantry, decided to do something about this.

While in high school, Rose Marie Belding developed the idea of creating an online database that would match facilities who had food to give away with charities in need of it. Unfortunately, she didn't have the programming skills necessary to make it work. After graduating, however, she met Grant Nelson, a law student who was developing code on his laptop. About nine months later, the two of them launched MEANS, "a free online platform that connects businesses with extra food to charities that feed the hungry."

In an interview with CNN, Belding explains how the system works:

It's pretty simple. If you want to get food from MEANS, you have to be registered as a legal charity in the United States. So, when a soup kitchen, homeless shelter or a food pantry needs something, they tell our system. And when a grocery store, caterer or food retailer has something they want to donate, all they have to do is go online and say, 'This is where I am, this is what I've got, and this is when I need it gone by.' Then the system automatically notifies all of those who have said, 'I need things within these parameters.' We're able to match up excess and need very, very quickly. At this point, MEANS has about 3,000 partners in 48 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The Emerson Act -- a 'Good Samaritan' law passed in 1996 -- protects donors from liability.

We're also part of a great partnership with the Rhode Island Health Department called Rhode to End Hunger, which encourages businesses to donate food to nonprofits. One of the shining stars of that is the Twin River Casino. They'll post hundreds of pounds of food, and somebody in Providence -- like McAuley House, which is feeding a lot of folks who are struggling -- will claim it really fast. The average in Rhode Island is about 10 minutes for things to move.

To read the full text of this story and to view the corresponding video, please see https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/19/health....