PORTLAND — Businesses, farmers, community leaders and students will showcase various solutions for reducing food waste during the virtual 2025 Maine Wasted Food Solutions Summit from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, April 18.
Food Rescue MAINE, a nonprofit housed within the University of Maine’s Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, is hosting the event. U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine will serve as the keynote speaker, addressing national and local wasted food solutions. Pingree introduced the Food Recovery Act and has partnered with UMaine to reduce wasted food since the founding of the Mitchell Center’s Materials Management team in 2015. With support from The Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future and Resource Recycling Systems Consulting group, analytic data for food wasted in Maine 2024 will be disseminated, focusing on the economic benefits of reducing wasted food.
ReFed, a US-based nonprofit, will confront the economic solutions and issues surrounding wasted food through a “Wasted Food and Food Solutions” presentation. Maine organizations including Bristol Seafood, Farms for Food Equity, Wayside Food Program and The Lisbon School District will be sharing their success stories and proven solutions to reducing wasted food.
The summit will be hosted through Zoom. Obtain a link by registering for the event on the Mitchell Center’s website.
Up to 38 percent of all food produced in the United States goes uneaten. By reducing wasted food, families can save between $1,866 and $3,000 per year. Through sustainable triple bottom line solutions, resources such as land, water, energy and human resources used to grow, package and transport food can be preserved.
Food is the single largest component of Maine’s solid waste system at 30 percent, and 97 percent of that waste ends up in landfills. Reducing wasted food improves food access, providing safe and nutritious food while strengthening food access in our communities.
In 2015, the Mitchell Center Materials Management team was tasked with eliminating wasted food and food loss, as the Maine Department of Environmental Protection identified this as the most pressing issue impacting the state’s materials management system. The Mitchell Center’s Food Rescue MAINE program was founded in 2019 to end wasted food and food loss in Maine through stakeholder-driven, transdisciplinary, triple bottom line solutions and support Maine’s food recovery hierarchy.
