BILL NUMBER: S7348

SPONSOR: ALCANTARA
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the agriculture and markets law, in relation to enacting
the "surplus food to charitable organizations act"

 
PURPOSE OF THE BILL:

In response to the humanitarian and environmental concerns outlined
below, the purpose of this bill is to provide a vehicle for large super-
markets to make available edible food they are throwing out, to charita-
ble organizations which feed the poor, needy, disadvantaged and at-risk
persons. This is edible food the supermarket is throwing away in the
normal course of its business operations. The supermarkets are not
required to transport or distribute the food.  State tax revenues and
public health laws and regulations are unaffected.

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

              

Section 1: Enacts the Surplus Food to Charitable Organizations Act.

Section 2: Adds a new Article 4-E to the Agriculture and Markets Act to
establish the Surplus Food to Charitable Organizations Act.

- Creates a new Agriculture and Markets section 71-aa to define the
terms "excess food", "qualifying charity" and "supermarket".

Under the provisions of this bill, the term "excess food" shall mean
edible foods offered for sale by supermarkets which has become surplus
and which such supermarket plans to throw out. Such foods shall not
include fresh milk, meat, fish, or poultry, damaged food, or food
subject to a governmental or producer recall.

"Qualifying Charity" shall mean a bona fide religious, charitable, or
non-for-profit organization that provides food at no cost to the poor,
needy, disadvantaged or at-risk persons. Such programs can include food
pantries, food banks, soup kitchens, or community based programs that
provide food to such persons.

"Supermarket" means a retail store that has more than 10,000 square feet
of space at a given location devoted to the sale of foods, food stuffs,
or groceries. Supermarkets shall not include cafeterias, bakeries,
caterers, hospitals, group homes, drug stores, or food courts.

- Adds a new section 71-bb to add a Declaration of Policy section. To
help address the large need to supply foods for the poor, needy, and
disadvantaged, it is the stated policy of the State of New York to
encourage, wherever possible, supermarkets to make available excess
edible food to qualifying charitable organizations.

- Adds a new Section 71-cc to state that every supermarket, to the best
of their ability, is to make a reasonable effort to make available on
its premises its excess foods (before it is thrown out) to charitable
organizations who have requested in writing to pick up excess food.  The
bill places no obligation on supermarkets to transport or distribute
such excess foods. Supermarkets may impose restrictions to ensure pick-

up does not interfere with its business operations.  Section 71-dd also
states all public health laws and regulations remain in place.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

In the United States, 60 to 100 million tons of edible food is thrown
out each year. However, this food is critically needed as an estimated
50 Million of our residents, including 16 Million children do not have
sufficient food to eat. This bill provides a mechanism in statute to
clearly authorize and reduce any questions or concerns that supermarkets
may have regarding a way to make available food to charitable organiza-
tions that sponsor food pantries, food banks, soup kitchens or other
community based programs that feed our poor and disadvantaged residents.

Additionally, this bill will help to reduce the amount of food stuffs
that are transferred to our municipal solid waste facilities. It is very
expensive to operate solid waste management facilities. This bill should
help to reduce the volume of trash that is transported to and deposited
in such solid waste management facilities. This will not only benefit
the environment by reducing harmful emissions, but help to reduce munic-
ipal costs in operating such facilities and the burden that this places
on municipal taxpayers.

This bill will help the environment in other ways. The cultivation,
harvesting, and transport of food, food stuffs, and groceries is a very
energy and water intensive endeavor. Approximately 25% of water used in
the United States goes to produce foods which end up in landfills. All
food that is grown, harvested, and transported to market that is not
consumed is not only food that is wasted in the nutrition that it could
have provided to our disadvantaged, but it is energy and water wasted.
By minimizing the amount of food that is throw away, that is a net
savings in the amount of energy and water that is expended to produce
such food.

This bill should have two direct effects on the reduction of greenhouse
gas emissions from New York State. Firstly, the bill will reduce the
amount of food waste that is being transported to sites that are part of
the state's solid waste disposal system, governed by the Department of
Environmental Conservation. These include the 174 permitted and 394
registered transfer stations throughout the state, and the 27 Municipal
Solid Waste Landfills, located in DEC Regions 4-9. This transport is
carried out by trucks, which emit greenhouse gases, in the form of large
quantities of carbon dioxide, as well as smaller amounts of methane and
nitrous oxide. Secondly, the bill will reduce the volume of organic
waste in the disposal sites. As this waste decays, it releases roughly
equal amounts of carbon dioxide and methane. The latter is particularly
serious, since methane is over 25 times more detrimental than carbon
dioxide.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New Bill

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This law shall take effect 180 days after it shall have become law.