{"id":2956,"date":"2018-01-18T05:16:10","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T05:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/52.10.1.109\/?p=2956"},"modified":"2018-01-20T01:46:03","modified_gmt":"2018-01-20T01:46:03","slug":"king-soopers-and-kroger-announce-zero-hunger-zero-waste-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/?p=2956","title":{"rendered":"King\u00a0 Soopers and Kroger announce Zero Hunger\/Zero Waste Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cMoonshot\u201d initiative aims to end hunger in communities and eliminate waste in the company by 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Kroger Co. announced Sept. 19 a new, national effort aimed at ending hunger in the communities Kroger calls home and eliminating waste across the company by 2025. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo family in a community we serve should ever go hungry, and no food in a store we operate should ever go to waste,\u201d said Rodney McMullen, Kroger\u2019s chairman and CEO. <\/span><\/p>\n

Across the United States, 42 million Americans struggle with hunger. At the same time, an estimated 72 billion pounds of food ends up in a landfill every year. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 40 percent of the food produced in the U.S. each year goes unconsumed, while one in eight people struggle with hunger. That just doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d McMullen said. \u201cAs America\u2019s grocer and one of the largest retailers in the world, we are committing to doing something about it.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Kroger\u2019s visionary Zero Hunger\/Zero Waste plan includes the bold commitments outlined below, in keeping with the company\u2019s purpose to feed the human spirit. <\/span><\/p>\n

Kroger is also crowdsourcing for solutions, asking communities, partners and other stakeholders to help provide ideas, feedback and best practices as the effort evolves. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t \u2013 and we won\u2019t \u2013 have all the answers,\u201d said Dennis Gibson, president of King Soopers.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cWhile we are clear about our vision, we are flexible about how to get there. We are working closely with both Feeding America and the World Wildlife Fund, our longstanding partners, to develop transparent metrics to track our progress.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we are inviting everyone who is passionate about feeding people and protecting the planet to join us in our mission to end hunger in our communities and eliminate waste across our company by 2025,\u201d Gibson added.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHunger exists in every county and affects every demographic group in this country,\u201d said Diana Aviv, CEO of Feeding America. \u201cIf we are to succeed in creating a hunger-free America, it will take the combined efforts of a variety of groups \u2013 policymakers, nonprofits, individuals and corporations \u2013 working together with the 200 network member food banks. Kroger is stepping up to the challenge and we look forward to working with them on their Zero Hunger\/Zero Waste plan.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s estimated that one-third of the world\u2019s available food either spoils or gets thrown away. By wasting less food, we can reduce the environmental impact of food production on our planet and conserve natural resources,\u201d said Sheila Bonini, senior vice president, private sector engagement, WWF. \u201cKroger\u2019s zero waste commitment sets a new standard for food waste reduction goals and will have a ripple effect across their supply chain and industry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Zero Hunger\/Zero Waste: A plan to end hunger in Kroger communities and eliminate waste in the Kroger Company includes:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Establish a $10 million innovation fund within The Kroger Co. Foundation to address hunger, food waste and the paradoxical relationship between the two.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Accelerate food donations to provide three billion meals by 2025 to feed people facing hunger in the places Kroger calls home. In partnership with its customers, associates and other partners, Kroger has donated one billion meals via combined food and funds donations since 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Donate not just more food, but more balanced meals via Kroger\u2019s industry-leading fresh food donations program. Kroger has been feeding people facing hunger since the company\u2019s inception in 1883, and as a founding partner of Feeding America, the nation\u2019s largest hunger relief organization, Kroger has longstanding partners with food banks across the country. Kroger store associates are empowered to identify meat, produce, dairy and bakery items for donation that remain safe, fresh and nutritious. Last year, Kroger donated the equivalent of 46 million fresh meals to local food banks in addition to dry goods and shelf-stable groceries.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Advocate for public policy solutions to address hunger and to shorten the line at food banks, lobbying for continued funding of federal hunger relief programs, and for public policies that help communities prevent and divert waste from landfills, including recycling, composting and sustainability programs that can be scaled for maximum impact.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Achieve all Zero Waste 2020 goals outlined in the annual Kroger sustainability report.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Eliminate food waste by 2025 through prevention, donation and diversion efforts in all stores and across Kroger. Develop transparent reporting on food loss and waste. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Join forces with both new and longstanding partners to identify opportunities, leverage data, and determine where by working together Kroger can help the most.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kroger\u2019s combined efforts are designed to transform communities by 2025, improving the health of customers and associates, making balanced food more readily available, sharing scalable food waste solutions with other retailers, restaurants and local governments, and working within Kroger\u2019s supply chain to reduce farm-to-fork food loss.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cZero Hunger\/Zero Waste is a vision for the America we want to help create with our associates, customers and stakeholders,\u201d McMullen said. \u201cThis is our moonshot.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize we have a lot of work to do,\u201d he added. \u201cBut we know when Kroger\u2019s more than 443,000 associates put their passion to work to make something happen, we can uplift our communities, the planet and each other.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Follow our journey and join the conversation at thekrogerco.com and #ZeroHunger
\nZeroWaste.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The Kroger Co. announced Sept. 19 a new, national effort aimed at ending hunger in the communities Kroger calls home and eliminating waste across the company by 2025. \u201cNo family in a community we serve should ever go hungry, and no food in a store we operate should ever go to waste,\u201d said Rodney …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,2,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-business-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}