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How FoodRecovery.org matches surplus with need

FoodRecovery.org is dedicated to making food redistribution actionable. We operate at the intersection of technology and sustainability to ensure nutritious meals reach those who need them most.

Our mission

Routing surplus food to neighbors in need

FoodRecovery.org's mission is to make it easy to donate or receive food while protecting the environment across the US and Canada.

We divert perfectly good food away from landfills by matching organizations making donations directly with local nonprofits. We are building a world where surplus consistently reaches the communities who need it most.

Our vision is to end food insecurity and keep food out of the landfill.

FoodRecovery.org's mission is to make it easy to donate or receive food while protecting the environment across the US and Canada.

Our vision is to end food insecurity and keep food out of the landfill.

The problem

Wasted food is an epidemic

Each year across the US and Canada there are …

218B lbs

of surplus food generated

58M

people living in a food insecure household

6.9B lbs

of food recovered

51B lbs

of food that could be recovered

Our ethos

Hunger is a failure of logistics, not supply

Our food system is flawed. There is a mismatch between the way we produce food and how it is distributed across communities. Despite a massive surplus of nutritious food, legacy food systems have historically relied on fragmented communication and outdated analog records.

By navigating these legacy systems and digital tools, we transform a systemic failure into a scalable climate and community solution. FoodRecovery.org is working to address these challenges by:

Leveraging our data-driven platform along with established methods to identify and claim surplus food in minutes
Enhancing communication between food donors and our nonprofit partners
Solving barriers for food recovery through proven logistics management
Preventing environmental waste by redirecting edible food for community impact

Origin story

Tackling wasted food since 2015

Maria Rose Belding and Grant Nelson met while students in Washington, D.C. Together, they created MEANS (Matching Excess and Need for Stability) Database, launching a system that has revolutionized food recovery. In 2024, we re-branded as FoodRecovery.org to reflect our mission and vision more clearly.

Since 2015, we have grown our team across the country and advanced our technological infrastructure, enabling more efficient operations and greater reach.

Learn more

Our collective impact

4,400 partners

including businesses and nonprofits

267M lbs

food donated and redistributed

58lbs

of food redistributed per $1 donated in 2025

All donation weights are verified by our nonprofit partners. Donations are separated into 16 different food categories used to calculate carbon emission estimates. Climate impact reporting is based on data provided to our verified carbon credit partner, Brightly Ventures Inc.

See Annual Reports

Check out our latest udpates