New bill would provide federal grants for schools’ food waste efforts

A bipartisan group of lawmakers have introduced a bill that would create a new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) program responsible for providing grants to schools for food waste initiatives.

The School Food Recovery Act would provide federal funding for schools to implement programs around food waste measurement and reporting, prevention, education, reduction and more.

An estimated 530,000 tons of food is wasted in school cafeterias each year, according to a 2019 report from the World Wildlife Fund.