FRANKFORT, Ky. - In the world of fruits and vegetables, it is the most pristine of produce that makes it to the grocer shelves or the farmers' markets but what about those tomatoes with a slight imperfection or the cucumber with a bit of a blemish?
Untold tons of usable produce are often left in the fields, food that is still good for consumption but with some type of flaw.
The Kentucky General Assembly has passed a bill to remedy the problem while helping less fortunate citizens. It is the hope of supporters of the legislation known as the Farm to Food Pantry bill that it will touch the lives of many while helping farmers avoid wasted food.
House Bill 344, sponsored by Representative Tom McKee from Harrison County and a farmer himself and chair of the House Ag Committee, will set the stage to establish a program within the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) to distribute agricultural food to food banks.
The whole idea behind the bill is to take surplus goods from state farms and put it on the shelves of food banks located throughout Kentucky.
As part of the legislation, a program will be established to award grants to purchase and distribute those agricultural commodities to food banks and a Surplus Agricultural Commodities Advisory Committee will be created as well.
Marian Guinn, chair of the Kentucky Association of Second Harvest Food Banks and CEO of God's Pantry Food Bank said the law will establish the framework for a program that replicates similar successful programs already in place in Ohio, Michigan and Texas.
"When the project is in full force, there will be funds made available to the food banks to purchase seconds from farmers; things that are still in good shape but may be slightly blemished or misshaped nutritious fruits and vegetables then distribute them through our network to low income people," she said.
Guinn noted that because this was not a year in which the General Assembly considers a budget, that funding for the project will be sought next year.
In Kentucky, there are seven food banks that serve the 120 counties that operate through a network of more than 1,000 member agencies such as pantries, shelters, soup kitchens and other programs that have food as part of their mission said Quinn.
"This will put locally grown fresh food into our system and ultimately into the hands of low income Kentuckians," she said.
Quinn added that in these tough economic times, with more and more people out of the work, the demand on food banks has increased. The state recently released figures that placed Kentucky's seasonally adjusted preliminary unemployment rate for March 2009 at 9.8 percent, a 25-year high.
"Here in Central Kentucky we have seen about a 30 to 40 percent increase in demand for service," said Quinn. "We participate in a large national hunger study every four years and from that we know more than 338,000 Kentuckians accessed services in 2006 when the survey was last conducted."
The downturn in the economy has impacted donations to food pantries as well making it more difficult to assist the growing numbers of those in need.
"We're always looking for new sources of products and we are really excited about this (legislation) because from the preliminary research that we have done, I really think this could translate into millions of pounds of additional food coming through our system," said Quinn.
While the bill focuses on putting food on pantry shelves it will also be good for farmers.
McKee said the idea for the legislation came from conversations with those nationally that had experience with similar projects.
"For a number of years we in the agriculture committee talked about how the agriculture community would be well served if we could find a way to utilize some of the products that are not making the food chain and utilize them in such a way that we might provide those who are hungry with nutritious food," he said. "With this legislation we hope we are putting in place a system within the KDA that will assists food banks to get that food and distribute it people who are in need."
McKee also said he would like to see funding for the project take place within the next budget cycle. The next session that would include a budget will begin in January of 2010. For now, donations can be received to help the program while an application process with the Governor's Office of Agricultural Policy could award grant money for a pilot project.
Guinn said that pilot project is in the works for this summer that will in essence purchase seconds from select produce sales in Central Kentucky as a way to get a better estimate of what rolling the program out across the state will really mean.
A marketing and outreach plan will likely be devised as the project unfolds, that will connect farmers to the program.