According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, approximately 30% of unsold grocery items end up being thrown away each year - foods that could go toward combatting food insecurity.

To stop food waste, food banks throughout the U.S. practice “retail rescue,” which means partnering with supermarkets to pick up large-volume donations of unsold foods. Then, food banks partner with food pantries to distribute these items directly to people in need.

In Southwest Florida, the Midwest Food Bank Florida is one such nonprofit group trying to channel more foods to the community. But the main hurdle is that the Midwest Food Bank has only one van and it is not refrigerated. The perishable produce, dairy, and meats don’t stand a chance in the Florida sun.

According to Executive Director Dennis Hall, Jr., there have been occasions where food donations were available for pickup from grocery retailers but the food bank was turned away due to lack of transportation resources.

“Some companies will give us the food, but we have to have freezer blankets, coolers, and all this stuff in there,” Hall said. “It’s easier if we collect the foods from a refrigerated van. So that’s been a challenge of getting more food from the food bank from the community and do retail rescue because of not having a refrigerated van.”

Currently, the only cargo van for the food bank is a non-refrigerated vehicle that has logged over 75,000 miles in less than two years. So, the Midwest Food Bank Florida is looking to purchase a new refrigerated van to safely transport perishable foods. This new van would be 14 feet in length, but with the added benefit of a temperature-controlled interior. The cost is estimated to be around $100,000.

Development Manager Holly Taylor said the funds would come from corporate and foundation sponsorships as well as individual donors. “The refrigerated van is a big piece of what we do,” Taylor said. “We’re growing so fast that when we need additional equipment, we have to go to our donors for that.”

The Midwest Food Bank Florida just received a $25,000 grant from Publix Super Markets. There is also a grant of $50,000 from the Schulze Foundation. The Midwest Food Bank Florida is approaching 80 percent of its goal and hopes to complete the purchase before warmer weather arrives.

The Midwest Food Bank is currently partnered with 221 agencies across Southwest Florida, but the need is so great that there is currently a wait list. Adding to this, recent federal restrictions in SNAP benefits have impacted low-income families.

“Gosh, yeah…when that happened, the need just really grew and we had agencies reach out to us because they weren’t getting enough from other agencies, but we’re not government funded, we’re privately funded, so our flow of products coming in never changed,” Hall said.

Despite the flux in needs and resources, the spirit of volunteerism is one constant at the food bank. On Tuesday morning, more than 60 volunteers bustled around the food bank’s Fort Myers warehouse, picking out food boxes and loading them for delivery to food pantries. The volunteers were of various ages and hailed from different places.

Dick Van Deest of Minnesota lives in Florida every winter and says he has selected the Midwest Food Bank as his volunteer spot for the past three years. “It’s for a good cause and I enjoy it; I meet different people,” he said.

Also in attendance was J.P. Nwokeji, an employee at Enterprise Mobility in Fort Myers who represented his company for a half-day volunteer shift. “In my own unit, I was just like the stocker,” Nwokeji said. “There was a cart pusher who’s responsible that the cart is loaded up to capacity and then getting new carts. Same with pallets as well. There’s an inventory person that would track the actual inventory on the list, just to keep the logistics accurate and then there would be a scanner that would scan each inventory for their own procurement needs.”

Continued work is needed to channel foods to areas of greatest need, but these arising needs bring opportunities to strengthen community connections in more ways than one.