Washington Center for Sustainable Food Management

Everyone has the right to live, work, and play in a clean and safe environment. That's regardless of race, ethnicity, language, or income.

The Center will work directly with Ecology’s Office of Equity and Environmental Justice to assure an environmental justice framework is applied to all elements of the Center’s work. Food rescue and opportunities to increase access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate foods are a priority of the Center.

In 2024, we will bring our partners back together to continue collaboration. Partnerships are needed to bridge gaps within the food system and to help leverage food waste reduction. Similar to the collaboration that lead to the Use Food Well Washington Plan, the Center aims to build bridges across key areas in Washington. The workgroups will have a variety of focus areas and will be a space where partners can participate in the Center’s ongoing work.

Pacific Coast Collaborative – We are also building partnerships at the regional level. The Pacific Coast Collaborative's food waste reduction initiative includes West Coast states and cities, and British Columbia. These regions have committed to a food waste reduction goal of 50% by 2030.

The PCFWC connects private sector food businesses with government agencies and nonprofits. All organizations work together by targeting, measuring, and acting on food waste. See PCFWC case studies for more information on this work.

The Center is tasked with increasing access to data and tracking in addition to measuring progress towards the 2030 goals. This work will be supported by ongoing research that increases our understanding of available data and establishes how to incentivize voluntary data reporting. Advanced data tracking will help the Center identify food waste reduction opportunities and share measurement best practices with partners across the food system.

While our understanding of food waste and wasted food has grown in recent years, there are more waste reduction barriers and opportunities in Washington. The Center will continue Ecology’s food waste reduction work by focusing on researching and mapping Washington’s food flows. Research will help bridge gaps between hunger relief organizations and potential donors, along with building more data and tracking capacity.

Education and behavior change is one of the top actions to address food waste reduction because this work helps shift culture to help drive systemic change. The Center will house Washington’s first-ever statewide food waste reduction campaign, launching in April 2024 during Food Waste Prevention Week. This campaign will launch with a food waste prevention message and focus on consumers as they interact with food. Partnerships with grocery retailers and food businesses will be ongoing throughout the year, and the campaign will grow to focus on food rescue, recovery, and contamination reduction in the years ahead.

Become a "smart shopper" by preparing ahead of time before going to the grocery store. Look in your cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer to see what you already have at home, first. Second, make a list of what you need to help resist impulse buying at the market. Freeze any extras right away and buy in bulk to cut down on packaging waste.

Storing food properly keeps it fresh. Ask important questions about your food, such as: "What produce needs to be stored in the refrigerator?" and "Should I wrap an item in a damp cloth or a dry cloth?" Families can prevent food waste by keeping proper storage guides handy in the kitchen, like this one from Seattle Public Utilities.

Date labels on food are confusing and result in unnecessary food waste. Knowing the meaning of these terms keeps grocery costs down by keeping food that is still safe to eat on the menu.

Donating food for those in need is a great way to keep edible food out of the garbage. Be sure to check with your county health department and nearby food bank to get local information about how to donate food safely and what is accepted. And see the Washington State Department of Health’s food donation information, Charity Food Donation Guidelines.

Backyard systems to manage food waste vary from simple piles to complex mechanical systems. 

When composting at home, be sure to mix yard trimmings (carbon-based "browns"), food waste (nitrogen-based "greens"), oxygen, and water.

Many composting and vermicomposting resources are available online and at libraries. Check out the EPA's resources on composting at home.

• AmpleHarvest.org
• Emergency Food Network
• Feeding America’s Food Lifeline
• Feeding Washington
• Northwest Harvest
• Second Harvest

• Focus on Food Donation – Washington Department of Ecology 
• King County edible food for donation
• Further with Food – EPA and U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) Food rescue webpage
• Food Recovery Network (for college students)

The Last Mile - Analyzing Barriers and Best Practices in Washington’s Grocery Food Rescue System