Meals Recovered

Definition:

Meals Recovered is the estimated amount of donated meals that would result from a given food surplus donations scenario.

Meal Recovery Potential Equation:

Meals Recovered = Tons Donated * 2,000 lbs per ton / 1.2 lbs per meal

Equation for Net Benefit of Alternative Scenario:

Net Benefit = Meals Recovered in Alternative Scenario - Meals Recovered in Current Scenario

The following table includes an example calculation to illustrate this methodology as implemented in the Impact Calculator.

Table 3. Example Calculations Performed to Estimate the Meal Recovery Potential of Two Food Surplus Donations Scenarios

DATA ITEM	DATA SOURCE OR CALCULATION	EXAMPLE
Sector	User provided	Retail
Food Type	User provided	Produce
Weight of Food Donated	User provided	A grocery retail sustainability manager wants to understand the number of additional meals that could be donated if they were to start donating perfectly-good-to-eat produce that is currently being landfilled just because it’s past the ‘sell by’ date. Currently, they estimate that they are donating 20 tons of produce. They think an additional 5 tons of the produce that they’re currently landfilling is perfectly-good-to-eat and could be donated instead. If so, this would result in a total of 25 tons of produce being donated. Current Scenario: 20 tons produce donated Alternative Scenario: 25 tons produce donated
Meals Conversion Factor	1.2 lbs of food per meal (assumption from Feeding America website[1])	Every 1.2 lbs of produce donated = 1 meal recovered
Current Scenario Meals Recovered	= Current Scenario Tons Donated * 2,000 lbs per ton / 1.2 lbs per meal	= 20 tons * 2,000 lbs per ton / 1.2 lbs per meal = 33,333 meals recovered
Alternative Scenario Meals Recovered	= Alternative Scenario Tons Donated * 2,000 lbs per ton / 1.2 lbs per meal	= 25 tons * 2,000 lbs per ton / 1.2 lbs per meal = 41,667 meals recovered
Net Benefit	= Meals Recovered in Alternative Scenario - Meals Recovered in Current Scenario	= 41,667 meals - 33,333 meals = 8,333 additional meals would be recovered under the alternative scenario Click here to see this example in the ReFED Impact Calculator.