A rescue effort is underway in Southeast Minnesota to take the leftover food from farms and turn it into a product local communities can be nourished from.
The Southeast Minnesota Food Rescue and Redistribution Program is a project that was started in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the dire food position it put many families and communities in.
The goal of the program is to reduce local fresh food waste by rescuing items left over on farms and then redistributing those items to the community. On its website, the Southeast Minnesota Food Rescue and Redistribution Program describes its pursuit to solve the enduring issue of every farmer having more product than they can ultimately sell.
“While some believe on-farm food waste is an urban myth because produce is used as animal feed or composted, our farmers have told us they feel they are literally composting money,” reads the website for the program.