Welcome to the Food Policy Debrief, where we shed much-needed light on how corporations and organizations can engage with progressive food policy. Join us once a month as we provide news updates, demystify policy, and provide opportunities for advocacy!

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TL;DR

Why everyone is talking about school lunches
Unfortunately, the bird flu is still a thing
Grubhub provides community grant program to BIPOC restaurateurs
Q&A: How Albertsons tapped into the expertise of its frontline workers to expedite food donation efforts

This Month’s Standout Food Stories

Bills We’re Tracking 👀

🥕 Farm Bill: Congress was in recess during August, and now faces a race against the clock to fund the government and potentially extend the Farm Bill. There are a variety of takes on this topic, but recently released data on food security and farm income forecasts show that our food and farm economy needs attention from Congress. Will they do anything? Stay tuned.

**How You Can Progress Food Policy This Month**

For organizations/companies

The FDA recently released the draft second phase goals for industry voluntary sodium reduction, and is accepting comments until November 14th, 2024.

For individuals

Urge your member of Congress to co-sponsor the Universal School Meal Program Act. All it takes is a few clicks, thanks to FRAC’s easy-to-use advocacy tool!
Food banks across the country are launching social media campaigns for Hunger Action Month. See how your local org is activating, and get involved!

Social Impact Spotlight

Shedding light on companies leading by example and engaging in food policy in a meaningful way

Last month, Grubhub joined Oyate Group and the New York State Latino Restaurant, Bar & Lounge Association to launch “Rising Restaurateur: A Community Grant Program.” This new initiative—which aims to support Latino, Black, Indigenous and AAPI restaurateurs—will provide 30 restaurants with both financial support and business development training.

Excitingly, Oyate Group and Grubhub have pledged to continue funding the program annually until 2026!

Q&A with John Bernardo, the Manager for Food Donation and Food Waste Diversion at grocery retailer Albertsons Companies

Especially if you read our feature story last month, you probably know that food waste is a really big problem. It may not surprise you, then, that for most grocery stores, it’s an alarmingly large problem (like, 16-billion-pounds-of-waste-annually type of large.)

Let us introduce you to one of the change-makers tackling this conundrum:

Meet John Bernardo. He’s the Manager for Food Donation and Food Waste Diversion at grocery retailer Albertsons Companies. Fun fact: one of our authors saw his presentation at the 2024 ReFED Summit and reported that it was truly riveting. He had the whole cool professor who gets out from behind the podium thing going on, which had the whole audience enraptured. Not to mention the content of his message, which unpacked a truly revolutionary study between Albertsons, Johns Hopkins University (JHU), and Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Titled the Fresh Rescue Champions Project, **the study tested a novel approach to improving food rescue: leading with the expertise of frontline workers.**

We were so impressed, we thought you all needed to hear about it—straight from the source. Let’s dive in.

Note: Yay, Food Policy Debrief’s first Q&A! Some of these answers have been edited for brevity.

Food Policy Debrief: What inspired Albertsons Companies to work on this study with Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA)?

John: A chance meeting and conversation at the 2022 ReFED conference between Dr. Roni Neff, Associate Professor at JHU’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Suzanne Long, Chief Sustainability and Transformation Officer at Albertsons Companies sparked this collaboration and study. Long had just spoken on the conference mainstage about the company’s goals to reduce food waste and the importance of workers in food waste and donation outcomes. Neff and her colleagues had funds through the Multiscale RECIPES for Sustainable Food Systems national food waste research network to study worker-engaged food waste solutions. Working with a food retailer of the size and reach of Albertsons Companies presented an exciting opportunity for researching solutions that could have a large-scale impact. At the same time, Albertsons Companies embraced the opportunity to study and enhance retail operations addressing food donations and food waste diversion with proven academic investigation and educational processes.

FPD: At ReFED 2024, we heard you speak about Albertsons employees playing a crucial role in this study. Why was elevating and empowering in-store employees to champion the food recovery efforts so important to the study?

John: Frontline supermarket employees are the true experts: they have a depth of experience and expertise related to unsold food and determine what food is donated or discarded daily. This project is rooted in the idea that when given the opportunity to think closely about needs, frontline workers can utilize their expertise and lived experience to develop strategies that both differ and complement those developed by corporate leadership or external researchers. Unlocking the expertise, creativity, and motivation of

supermarket employees presented a significant opportunity toward achieving increased food donation and decreasing food waste. This project built on Albertsons Companies’ existing efforts and communications with frontline employees towards food recovery. Researchers interviewed, shadowed, and conducted collaborative conversations with over 25 frontline employees. Additionally, a group of ten employees became “Fresh Rescue Champions” and engaged extensively with the research team, meeting six times outside their stores at MICA’s campus in Baltimore. At these meetings, the Champions helped guide the research process and co-designed strategies for improving food donation at their stores.

FPD: What were the biggest challenges you faced within the study? Were any of them unexpected?

John: This collaboration has been a unique and incredibly rewarding learning experience. From an outside perspective, it may seem like retailers and researchers have different goals. Researchers are interested in asking questions, collecting and analyzing data, and creating interventions. Retailers are interested in selling the highest quality products and providing an ideal experience for their customers. In this project, however, we shared the same goal: to understand how to reduce wasted food and improve food donation through the eyes of the frontline employees. Throughout the project, Albertsons Companies leadership and the research team maintained consistent communication to ensure we were always on the same page. Admittedly, it took time for us to understand each other and become familiar with one another’s ideas and processes. This was challenging at times, but that is the beauty and benefit of an educational foray into traditional retail operations.

FPD: What were the initial wins that you saw from the study?

John: This project had a profound impact on the Champions, both in terms of how they understood wasted and donated food and how they viewed their role as changemakers in the company. Throughout the process, the Champions shared sentiments about how they appreciated the chance to openly share their thoughts and opinions about day-to-day operations, and to be seen as experts. Many Champions described the project as fun and exciting, and said they enjoyed the chance to take part in the sessions outside their stores at MICA’s campus. Toward the end of the project, we learned that after each session at MICA, many of the Champions would go back to their stores and share what they did and/or learned with other employees and would even take it upon themselves to check-in with other departments to see how donations were going. Additionally, we witnessed continual active engagement by the Champions, enthusiasm, and sincere desire to manage store operations while reducing food waste and recovering edible food for neighbors in need.

FPD: Now that the study has concluded and you’ve seen positive results, where does Albertsons Companies go from here? What impact do you see this having on grocery retail at large?

John: Now that the Fresh Rescue Champions Project Final Report is published and released, we are determining how best to prioritize and implement some of the strategies and recommendations developed by the Champions, such as conducting new direct, hands-on trainings for the Fresh Rescue food donation program, utilizing updated donation guidelines with posters and detailed handouts, and strengthening connections between donation partners, employees, and stores. The potential impacts on the greater grocery retail community are ambitious and exciting.

Huge thank you to the ever-inspiring John, and congratulations to all the stakeholders on this successful study. To read the full report Fresh Rescue Champions Project, click here.