Arizona nonprofit partners with local businesses to prevent food waste

An Arizona nonprofit is celebrating 40 years of saving meals, highlighting the latest businesses making sure no food goes to waste.

What It Is:

Brent has a passion for fresh healthy meals, so he created the Brento Box— which delivers meal kits, and even has vending machines of fresh meals.

"We put them in gyms, office buildings, apartment complexes, police stations and city halls to make healthy food available to everybody," Brent Imbornoni, founder of Brento Box, said.

Why you should care:

There is nothing better than fresh food, but the only problem is fresh food does not always last as long.

"We were sending people to the stores twice a week to pull meals at their best-buy dates because we could no longer sell them," Imbornoni said. "Initially, those foods were going to the trash, and we felt bad about that."

How They're Helping:

That is where Waste Not comes in. They are a 40-year-old nonprofit that finds ways to save food for those that really need it.

"We rescue food that would otherwise be thrown away but is still able to be consumed, and we get it to our non-profit agency partners, who in turn deliver it to those in need in our community," Mara Pernick, Waste Not executive director, said.

Big picture view:

Pernick says more than 80 businesses in Arizona now contact them to save food instead of tossing it. Last year alone they saved more than 2 million meals.

"The impact is quite enormous, just really making sure those in our community have food to eat," Pernick said.

Looking Ahead:

For Brent, it is a no-brainer—not just now, but in the future too.

"As we continue to expand and grow, you know, the sales go up but so does the amount of meals we need to pull," Imbornoni said. "Last month it was $3,500 worth of meals needing to be pulled. That number hurts, but it doesn’t hurt when I know it gets donated to people in need in the community. I actually feel good about it."

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