Sponsors (5)
The bill promotes more food recovery, modest investments in infrastructure, data, and markets for upcycled foods to reduce waste and help food‑insecure Americans, but its limited funding and added verification/reporting requirements risk excluding small actors and imposing significant administrative costs that will constrain nationwide impact.
People facing food insecurity and food banks will receive more recoverable food through clearer rules for upcycled products, required federal-contractor donations, expanded recovery infrastructure, and matching/pilot grants that increase pickups and redistribution.
Farmers, producers, and small food businesses gain new market opportunities and cost savings from a recognized upcycled-products category, research into loss‑reduction technologies, and priorities for research on byproduct/animal‑feed uses.
State, Tribal, and local governments (and their partner nonprofits) can build storage, processing, and cold‑chain distribution capacity through block and pilot grants and technical assistance, improving local food availability and emergency feeding capability.
Funding authorizations in the bill are modest (multiple programs capped at ~$1–2M/year or one‑time smaller amounts), so nationwide impact will be limited and many communities or projects may go unsupported.
New verification, reporting, and matching requirements create material compliance and administrative costs for manufacturers, federal contractors, local governments, and nonprofits—raising burdens and potentially raising prices or discouraging participation.
Tighter definitions, verification standards, and matching‑fund requirements risk excluding informal, small, or under‑resourced food‑recovery groups and low‑income or rural jurisdictions that cannot meet documentation or matching thresholds.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Establishes a USDA Office, regional coordinators, grants, block grants, contractor reporting, and a national education campaign to halve food loss and waste by 2030.
Introduced April 10, 2025 by Chellie Pingree · Last progress April 10, 2025
Creates a permanent USDA Office of Food Loss and Waste and a coordinated federal push to measure, reduce, and recover surplus food with new grant programs, regional coordinators, a block‑grant program for emergency food infrastructure, interagency implementation of existing commitments, contractor reporting requirements, and a national education campaign. It sets a national goal to cut food loss and waste 50% from 2016 levels by 2030 and authorizes modest annual funding for FY2026–FY2030 to support research, grants, partnerships, technical assistance, and public outreach. Requires USDA, EPA, and FDA to implement an interagency agreement, expands grant and partnership opportunities for states, tribes, and localities, prioritizes research on reducing on‑farm and supply‑chain loss, and creates new rules and reporting for federal contractors and agencies to track prevention, diversion, and donations of food.