In 2016, the Maryland Food Center Authority couldn’t quite catch its nearby rival, the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market, which diverted 1.2 million pounds of food into better uses during the three-month challenge.
Another facet of the Waste Challenge is a roster of “U.S. Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champions”—businesses and organizations that have committed to reduce food loss and waste by 50 percent by 2030. Among the participants are Aramark, ConAgra Foods, Wegman’s, and Ahold USA.
Ahold USA, represented in Maryland by the Giant supermarket chain, continues to divert food to the Maryland Food Bank through multiple pickups each week. Another retailer, Whole Foods, has instituted waste reduction practices in Baltimore-area stores, with employees sorting unsold food into bins labeled compostable, recyclable, and landfill on a daily basis.
Changes: New & Old
Maryland, and the Jessup Market in particular, have had to overcome some challenges, both new and old. One very specific challenge—the extremes of a mid-Atlantic coastal winter—continued to vex businesses up and down the East Coast this year. Several snowstorms hit the area early in the year, blanketing the region with snow and ice.
A January blizzard closed grocery stores and restaurants and dumped mountains of snow on the Jessup Market. Amazingly, within two days, the Mary-land Food Center was dug out and business was back in gear.
“We’re open 363 days a year, closing only for Easter and Christmas,” points out Lancaster’s Staples. “This past year was no different; we want our customers to always be able to count on us, and that means the proper planning and safety to fulfill orders in all conditions.”
Of course, weather in other areas—even across the country—can impact the Jessup Market too. A prime example was the rain and flooding on the West Coast. “Rain in California severely delayed shipping from that area,” comments Vitrano, “so we were selling lettuce for $60 a case, when it’s usually about $15 a case.”
Staples also mentioned the torrential downpours in California. “We weren’t affected by the weather too much,” he recalls, but the excessive rain in California did limit citrus sales in April and May.
The Market faces other difficulties, as well. In a city with more than its share of ups and down, Baltimore’s population has been declining and the economy is far from robust. The region doesn’t attract as many large companies or jobs as it once did, though city planners are trying to turn the tide.
A few recent measures are providing hope, such as new business ventures and jobs, with many of the latter driven by rising interest in solar energy. Though this may not seem directly tied to the local produce industry, it is a signal that Maryland is looking to the future and statewide growth. In a state where nearly one-third of its arable land is dedicated to growing produce, this should be good news for the industry.
