No Food Left Behind

Type of practice Reuse for food

Name of practice No Food Left Behind

Name of main actor AmpleHarvest.org, USA

Type of actor(s) NGO

Location United States of America

Stage of implementation Harvesting

Year of implementation 2009

What was/is being done? This campaign enables people to eliminate hunger and malnutrition in their their community via the Internet. AmpleHarvest.org connects 40+ million Americans with excess food in their garden and local food pantries. Many Americans rely on the more than 33,500 food pantries (also called food shelves, food closets, food cupboards or food banks in some areas) across America to help feed their families. These food pantries, relying on donated and purchased foods, almost never have fresh produce and instead rely on canned or processed produce. At the same time, millions of home and community gardeners nationwide with an abundant harvest do not know that they can share their harvest - AmpleHarvest.org solves that for them by giving food pantries the opportunity to register themselves in a central nationwide directory so that gardeners and other donors can share their fresh produce.

Outcomes and impacts Currently, 5,030 food pantries across all 50 states are registered to receive a sustainable and recurring supply of freshly harvested, locally grown food from area growers - for free. In August 2010 a survey of then registered food pantries indicated that more than 3 million pounds of freshly harvested locally grown produce had been donated to food pantries.