Waste Not uses trash-bound food to help feed metro Phoenix's hungry

They say to reduce waste, cut out the middleman.

That thinking doesn’t apply to Waste Not.

The organization, based in Scottsdale, is essentially a network of middlemen who rescue trash-bound food and then deliver it to those in need.

Six days a week, Waste Not truck drivers travel around the area picking up excess food from grocery stores, hotels and restaurants. Items such as bread, lettuce, bananas, frozen chicken, beef stew and cupcakes are perfectly edible. For whatever reason — chefs made too much, expiration dates are approaching — it can’t be used by the originator.

So, Waste Not coordinates pickups and then delivers the edibles to food banks, day-care facilities, homeless shelters and crisis centers. They ensure that up to 10,000 pounds of food a day ends up in hungry mouths instead of landfills.

“The other day, we happened to have a birthday cake and when we took it in (to a child-care center), the woman practically started crying,” said Dee Mitten, the group's executive director. “The woman said, ‘One of our little boys has a birthday today and he’s never had a cake in his life.’”

The Republic’s Season for Sharing campaign donated $15,000 to Waste Not last season. The fund has been a financial supporter of Waste Not since 2000, donating a total of $295,000.

Waste Not has five refrigerated trucks and nine employees. They pick up food from more than 190 donors and deliver to about 100 agencies.

That load multiplies when mega events land in the city. This year, Waste Not worked with the NFL and rescued almost 100,000 pounds of food from Super Bowl parties. They’ll do the same work when the College Football National Championship is held in Glendale in January.

For all that work, their overhead is low. The annual budget is $500,000, but the organization is worth about $4 million, Mitten says.

The organization’s office space inside the Granite Reef Senior Center in Scottsdale is donated. Its trucks are allowed to park for free at the Salvation Army’s lot. Since food finds its way into hungry hands in a single day, there’s no need to pay to warehouse perishables. Truck maintenance, fuel and payroll are Waste Not’s biggest expenses.

Shepherd's Warehouse food bank in Tempe receives food from Waste Not twice a week. Each drop-off is “like Christmas” director Renate Blanchard said. She and a team of volunteers break down the potatoes, canned vegetables, bags of pasta and packages of turkey meat into emergency food boxes that are distributed to seniors and young families who depend on the shelter.

“People tell me, ‘If it wouldn’t be for your box, we would go hungry,’” she said. “America has so much. There’s no reason for anybody to go hungry.”

Next year, Mitten hopes to add a sixth truck, meaning about a dozen agencies that are currently on a waiting list can start receiving food. She said people who’d like to help Waste Not can volunteer at annual fundraisers such as the Empty Bowls event held annually in October in downtown Phoenix. But what helps the most is financial support, Mitten said.

“The nation is waking up,” she said. “Forty percent of food goes to waste and only 10 percent is recovered. The emphasis is to feed hungry people, and that remains one of the community’s most daunting challenges.”