Learn About the Food Recovery Challenge (FRC)
On this page:
- About the Food Recovery Challenge
- Food Recovery Challenge Partner Types
- Partner Benefits
- Search for Current Food Recovery Challenge Partners
About the Food Recovery Challenge
EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge is a voluntary incentive program in which organizations and businesses set data-driven goals, implement targeted strategies to reduce wasted food in their operations, and report results to compete for annual recognition from EPA. Organizations and businesses can join as participants or endorsers and are encouraged to follow the Food Recovery Hierarchy to prioritize their actions to prevent and divert wasted food. Those actions include source reduction, donation, feeding animals, industrial uses, and composting.
The Food Recovery Challenge, as part of EPA’s Sustainable Materials Management Program, encourages organizations to use materials more productively over their entire lifecycle. Working together, we can promote the value of reducing wasted food and encourage organizations to make informed decisions and use approaches to divert and prevent food from entering landfills.
Find out more about:
- Joining the Food Recovery Challenge and the Awards Process
- Food Recovery Challenge Annual Results and Award Winners
Food Recovery Challenge Partner Types
Organizations and businesses such as grocers, state/local/tribal/territorial governments, educational institutions, food rescue organizations, restaurants, faith-based organizations, sports and entertainment venues, and hospitality businesses can all join the Food Recovery Challenge.
An organization or business can join as a participant or an endorser. Please note: individuals are not eligible to join the program.
- Participants are businesses or organizations that prevent and divert wasted food in their operations by following the Food Recovery Hierarchy.
- Endorsers are organizations that may not generate wasted food themselves but rather work with and educate others to reduce their generation of wasted food. Endorsers may also recruit other organizations and businesses as Food Recovery Challenge participants
Partner Benefits
Becoming a Food Recovery Challenge partner has no financial obligation. As a partner, you can raise the importance of reducing wasted food and…
- participate in a national network of peers and learn from others' success stories.
- have an opportunity to become a Food Recovery Challenge awardee (see information on the award process).
- gain recognition from EPA and be featured on the program’s website and in social media.
- receive potential tax benefits by implementing a food donation program.
- conserve resources, reduce your environmental footprint, and support your community by donating excess food or otherwise preventing/diverting it from the landfill.
- have access to a free online data management system to track your data.
- receive technical support and assistance from your EPA regional representative.
- promote participation in the Food Recovery Challenge.
Current Food Recovery Challenge Partners
Note: Emerge Knowledge Design Inc. developed the SMM Data Management System under GSA contract number is GS-35F-0589V. The system is hosted in Re-TRAC Connect.