Learn from SPU's Partners & Projects
SPU has partnered with grocers, hospitals, hunger relief organizations, academia, and community nonprofits to discover root challenges for commercial food donation. Our goals are to:
- keep food out of the garbage and edible food out of compost collection,
- improve the quality and quantity of donated food, and
- foster partnerships that bring expertise for new and larger scale solutions
In 2024, SPU awarded $200,000 to three grantee teams who could "move the dial" in reducing food waste and increasing access to good food for people experiencing food insecurity in Seattle.
The final awardees are:
- Edible Food Recovery at Virginia Mason Medical Center with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health for $57,903
- More Than Food Project with Vault89 Strategies for $100,000
- Pedaling Relief Project: Accelerating Food Rescue Efforts in Seattle with Cascade Bicycle Club for $42,097
Read more about these projects and the partnering organizations in At Your Service. Updates will be shared when the projects are complete.
What does it mean to meet grocers where they’re at? Learn about SPU’s on-the-ground approach to iterate, integrate feedback and develop tools and resources in real time to standardize the food donation process, increase donation quality and strengthen relationships between grocers and their food donation partners.
PPT presentation coming soon.
In 2022, SPU piloted recommendations from the 2021 Grocery Rescue Assessment with three Safeway stores and three Seattle food banks. Findings showed that by using a standardized donation bin, guiding employees on donation protocols, and strengthening communications with their food bank partners, the quality and quantity of donated food goes up while food waste goes down. The pilot also prototyped a bin reuse system to pick up, clean, and return the bins to the stores.
Download the report (PDF)
Grocers are among the largest donors of unsold food. This project focused on how eight grocery locations could improve quality and quantity of donated food while reducing food and packaging waste.
Download the summary (PDF) or the full report (PDF)
SPU hired the University of Washington Supply Chain Transportation and Logistics Center (SCTL) to identify how food rescue transportation logistics might be improved. Key findings suggested that food donors and hunger relief organizations should:
- consider collecting shared data (food, transportation, labor, and storage needs);
- communicate based on this shared information;
- conduct operations using standardized protocols; and
- collaborate based on shared challenges and opportunities.
Read the report (PDF)