Overlooking just how much food is inside a grocery store is easy as you hunt for the items on your shopping list. Employees stock shelves and refrigerators with thousands of staples, sundries and snacks on a daily basis. The majority get purchased, but there are always leftovers.

To reduce food waste, local and national grocery stores distribute pulled products to organizations throughout Central Oregon as food donations or to feed farm animals.

“It’s been quite a movement that’s been in the spotlight, and I think it’s pretty awesome that Central Oregon is at the forefront of it,” said Carly Sanders, food program director for NeighborImpact.

Each year, NeighborImpact receives 1.3 million pounds of food from 17 stores in Deschutes County. The food is distributed weekly to local food pantries, meal sites and brown-bag programs.

“We’re so lucky to have this wonderful wealth of food in this country,” said Becca Burda, marketing and community relations liaison at Whole Foods. “Making sure we’re taking advantage of that and getting it in the right hands, even if it’s not our customers, that we’re still getting it to people who can use it.”

Flowers and foods that aren’t in a condition for people to consume also have multiple uses.

Feeding Central Oregon families

Much of the unsold food donated by Central Oregon stores goes straight to NeighborImpact. Food from grocery stores makes up about 40 percent of the food distributed; the rest is from Oregon Food Bank and local food drives.

The nonprofit organization distributes the food to 47 partner agencies in Deschutes, Jefferson and Crook counties. NeighborImpact has a partnership with many of the corporate grocery stores through the Fresh Alliance program, which holds a contract with Feeding America.

“Safeway, Fred Meyer, Albertsons hold a contract with Feeding America that allows regional food banks to do food recovery at the grocery stores,” Sanders said. “It just ensures that we have well-trained individuals picking up the food who know how to properly handle it.”

NeighborImpact picks up food from Market of Choice six days a week. On the one day it doesn’t, Market of Choice donates leftover food to one of the Central Oregon churches.

“We donate all of the baked goods, any dairy, any sliced meats, refrigerated items, any grocery down-the-aisle items (dry goods),” said Casey Capell, store manager of the Market of Choice in Bend.

Additionally, NeighborImpact and other food pantries have partnerships with local businesses such as Sparrow Bakery, C.E. Lovejoy’s Market and High Desert Produce, that regularly donate food.

Safe to eat

The nonprofits must follow strict guidelines for proper food safety handling. NeighborImpact takes the temperature of all of the food received to make sure it’s safe to eat.

“We have an entire guideline for donatable products that the grocery stores all are trained on,” Sanders said. “Depending on the type of product, each product has a different guideline.”

Many refrigerated products can be consumed a number of days past the sell dates, but regulations differ for each item. For example, whipping cream can be available at food banks 10 days past its sell date, but milk can only be there five days past.

Additionally, many stores pull foods before they’ve reached their expiration dates. Market of Choice generally pulls refrigerated items three days before the expiration dates.

“We … wouldn’t want you to come in to buy milk today that expires tomorrow,” Capell said.

Banking for food

A frozen chuck roast, a dented gallon carton of Tillamook ice cream and day-old Sparrow Bakery breads are among the items inside The Giving Plate, a Bend food bank founded by husband and wife Gary and Debra Kelso.

In February, the food bank distributed 45,205 pounds of food to people in need — 538 pounds of which were distributed to children through the food bank’s Kids Korner.

“We have our 501(c)(3) nonprofit status so we pay 12 to 14 cents a pound; that’s how we can survive,” said founder Gary Kelso of a recent purchase from NeighborImpact.

A person is eligible for food from The Giving Plate if the annual income is at or below $30,044 for a household of two or $22,311 for a household of one.

“There’s a stigma of people going to food banks, homeless and such. We have maybe 1 or 2 percent of homeless who come to us,” Kelso said. “The biggest share of our people have a roof over their heads. Unfortunately, too many of our guests that come in here are two checks away from being on the street.”

The program relies heavily on food donations from Central Oregon stores and distribution from NeighborImpact. “We’ve got our food, it might look good, but we’re just surviving too,” Kelso said. “This is not about money here, it’s about love.”

The Kelsos receive weekly deliveries of produce, meats, dairy items, dry items, frozen items, breads and pastries from Central Oregon grocery stores and bakeries.

“They turn it in on their insurance claims so it’s a write-off for them, so it’s a win-win. It’s a good thing for us,” Kelso said. Of the stores, Safeway is the largest provider, according to Kelso.

The Bloom Project

Several grocery stores donate their remaining flowers to The Bloom Project. The nonprofit organization uses donated flowers to create bouquets for hospice and palliative-care patients at Touchmark at Mount Bachelor Village senior living and St. Charles Health System. Trader Joe’s, Newport Avenue Market and Whole Foods are a few of the stores that donate flowers to the organization on a regular basis. “A good number of the partners that we work with are donating what they have, so as you can imagine, around Valentine’s Day we have a ton of leftover roses,” said Katie Schoen, who handles public relations for The Bloom Project. “It’s definitely more of the in-season flowers that we receive. Right now it’s a lot of tulips.”

The Bloom Project volunteers pick up the flowers and sort through to find the ones in good condition. Wilted flowers are sent to compost. Sprightly flowers are kept in a refrigerated space where they are preserved before being arranged in a bouquet and delivered to the patients. The Bloom Project’s goal is for the flowers to stay in good condition for at least five days after they’re delivered.

“There’s enough sadness as you’re talking about end-of-life care, and so it’s important that those flowers aren’t coming in and immediately wilting. It’s important that they have a lifetime to them,” Schoen said.

Feed for farms

Foods that are past the point of being edible are sometimes donated to local farms for compost or to feed animals. The Bend Market of Choice gives barrels of leftover produce to a local farmer to feed his pigs.

“Farmers that are picking it up for compost, they’re picking up produce that’s going south fast,” Burda said. “NeighborImpact is getting the produce that doesn’t look perfect but is still perfectly edible.”

Whole Foods donates past-its-prime produce to Chimps Inc. to feed chimpanzees. The business also gives produce to local farmers to use to produce compost. Volunteers at The Giving Plate throw picked-over produce and breads in a bin that’s given to a pig farmer to feed his pigs each week.

“If it doesn’t go today, then we pull it (and) give it to agricultural farmers, and they use it to feed the pigs and then people eat the pigs,” Kelso said. “Circle of life.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0351, mcrowe@bendbulletin.com