00                    HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 18                                                                   
01 Encouraging schools and businesses to reduce, recover, and recycle food waste.                                          
02 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
03       WHEREAS 133,000,000,000 pounds of the nation's food supply is not eaten each                                    
04 year, enough to feed 175,000,000 people for an entire year; and                                                         
05       WHEREAS approximately one in seven residents, approximately 105,000 Alaskans,                                   
06 struggle with hunger in the state; and                                                                                  
07       WHEREAS 20 percent of children in the state live in homes that may not have                                     
08 enough to eat, and one in 10 seniors in the state face the threat of hunger; and                                        
09       WHEREAS much of the food thrown away each day in the state could be used to feed                                
10 hungry Alaskans; and                                                                                                    
11       WHEREAS food banks and pantries in the state work with businesses to make it cost-                              
12 effective and convenient for food that would otherwise go in the dumpster to be donated to                              
13 feed hungry Alaskans; and                                                                                               
14       WHEREAS the Food Bank of Alaska rescues more than 5,000,000 pounds of food                                      
15 from being wasted annually; and                                                                                         
16       WHEREAS smarter school lunchroom strategies, such as composting food waste for                                  
01 use in school gardens to produce healthy Alaska-grown produce for the school, donating                                  
02 excess food to food pantries, extending lunch periods, and allowing students to serve                                   
03 themselves, may significantly reduce food waste; and                                                                    
04       WHEREAS the costs of food and the costs of disposing food are significant and only                              
05 rising, and thus it makes good financial sense to reduce food waste; and                                                
06       WHEREAS there are federal tax incentives for businesses who donate food and                                     
07 reduce waste; and                                                                                                       
08       WHEREAS the United States Food Waste Challenge was launched in 2013 with the                                    
09 goal of reducing, recovering, and recycling food waste; and                                                             
10       WHEREAS, on September 16, 2015, Tom Vilsack, United States Secretary of                                         
11 Agriculture, and Stan Meiburg, Environmental Protection Agency Deputy Administrator,                                    
12 announced the first-ever national food loss and waste reduction goal, calling for a 50 percent                          
13 reduction by 2030;                                                                                                      
14       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature encourages schools and                                         
15 businesses in the state to reduce, recover, and recycle food waste as a means to help feed                              
16 hungry Alaskans, reduce the cost of doing business in the state, and help the nation meet the                           
17 goal of reducing food loss and waste by 50 percent by 2030.