“Nourishing our communities is a priority at Whole Foods Market, especially in these challenging times,” said Rob Twyman, Executive Vice President of Operations at Whole Foods Market. “We’re proud to put forth a food redistribution solution to reduce food waste and provide both perishable and nonperishable nourishing foods to our communities.”
As part of the program, Whole Foods Market is donating two refrigerated catering vans along with the funds to purchase 19 refrigerated vans to community-based food rescue and redistribution programs. The vans will be used to transport perishable and nonperishable food to communities within 18 markets across the U.S. and Canada.
Whole Foods Market suppliers RightRice, Justin’s and Severino Pasta Companymade donations to help fill the vans upon initial distribution to recipient organizations, according to the release. And Whole Foods Market will add more perishable and nonperishable goods to fill the vans.
The vans will provide recipient organizations with 20,000 pounds of rescued food per week per vehicle. As Whole Foods reported, that equates to 182 million meals provided over the anticipated 10-year lifetime use of each van.
