This Is What Olive Garden Does With Its Leftover Food

You might be taking small steps to combat food waste in your home, like not buying in excess or avoiding major food storage mistakes to minimize spoilage, but restaurants aren't always so conscientious. Luckily, Olive Garden has also taken steps to cut its food waste. The restaurant chain has partnered with Feeding America (a network of food banks and food pantries in the United States) to help provide food to the 18 million people experiencing food insecurity in this country.

For starters, Olive Garden helps make mobile food pantries possible (and more efficient) through its partnership with Feeding America. By providing the option for mobility via refrigerated box trucks, food pantries are able to reach more locations and provide more people with meals who otherwise may not be able to make it to brick and mortar establishments. With so many people experiencing food insecurity in the United States, it's hard to believe an estimated 30% to 40% of the nation's food supply goes to waste. That's why Olive Garden's partnership with Feeding America is so admirable. Still, this partnership is only one way the company works to combat food waste. Each restaurant takes steps to provide aid at a local level, as well.

Olive Garden's Never Ending Pasta Bowl deal is enough for anyone to enjoy, but it's what happens after the orders stop coming in that makes Olive Garden a staple in the communities it belongs to. Whether the restaurant is located in the state that wastes the least food or the most, Olive Garden has created the Harvest Program to do its part in working toward a solution. The Harvest Program helps each restaurant save edible food remaining at the end of each day to be donated to local nonprofits that provide food for their local community. This practice has been in place at Olive Garden since 2003. Through it, the chain has donated more than 49 million pounds of food since it began.

Thanks to laws like The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, which protects people and restaurants from liability when making donations of food to nonprofits, more restaurants can breathe easy donating excess, high-quality food that didn't get served without the fear of repercussions. It's nice to see political institutions reducing barriers like this so that businesses feel empowered to help where they can.