Westchester BOL Sends NYS Excess Food Act Request to Albany
The letter below was sent to the New York State Senate and Assembly by the Westchester County Board of Legislators after they received and endorsed the proposed legislation initiated by Greenburgh resident Mike Sigal, member of the Town’s Conservation Advisory Committee, who learned of a similar initiative while in France.
The Greenburgh Town Board endorsed the legislation and has asked NYS Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assemblyman Tom Abinanti to introduce the bill in Albany. The letter was signed by all 17 members of the County BOL.
The Letter: “We respectfully request that you introduce legislation that will help millions of hungry New Yorkers. A New York State Excess Food Act would be a significant humanitarian and environmental initiative, without any revenue or administrative cost to government.
Last year the Republic of France adopted a law, without a dissenting vote in the French National Assembly, requiring large supermarkets to make available to feed the needy food they were otherwise throwing away. The Town of Greenburgh spent a year studying this law and the distribution of food to the needy, consulting with, among others, supermarket managers and the Food Bank for Westchester (which serves 6.3 million meals annually).
The proposed Excess Food Act would require large supermarkets to make excess edible food available to charities and religious organizations that provide free food to needy people. This is food that is otherwise being thrown away in the ordinary course of business.
Large supermarkets, on a daily basis, cull their shelves for foods that don’t meet their cosmetic standards or are reaching their “best by” date. This food is still edible. Last year, in the United States between 60 – 100 million tons of edible food was thrown away, while an estimated 50 million Americans, including 16 million children, go hungry. At the same time, fossils fuels are being burnt to transport the food to landfills, where the waste creates environmentally harmful gases. This is a humanitarian disgrace, with adverse environmental consequences.
The proposed law is simple. It fits into the existing system of food distribution to the needy. The Food Bank for Westchester (which has a need for additional food to serve 10 million more meals than the 6.3 million it currently serves) has indicated that this legislation fits right into their current collection and distribution system. There is no tax revenue lost to NYS, and the State does not have any administrative or enforcement burdens. All public health and food laws are kept in place. Foods with quick spoilage problems are excluded. Supermarkets and those involved in the distribution chain of this food are provided a save harbor from litigation, except for gross negligence or intentional misconduct. There are no new costs to supermarkets – and they may even save some money by not having to pay to have the excess food carted away.
Thank you for your consideration. We hope that you will help New York State become the leader in this humanitarian and environmental effort. Please contact us with any questions.”
