Zero Hunger | Zero Waste is Kroger’s® social impact plan that focuses on three primary objectives: ending hunger, eliminating waste and saving energy. By ending hunger in communities and eliminating waste across the company by 2025, Kroger and Fry’s Food Stores® soften the blow of more than 40% of food in the U.S. being thrown away or going uneaten.
“Fry’s is committed to ending hunger in the communities we call home and taking care of our planet by eliminating waste across the company,” says Monica Garnes, president of Fry’s Food Stores. “Providing essential and nutritious food to Arizona families and caring for the environment allows us to feed the human spirit as well as the body.”
Ending Hunger
With 1 in 5 Arizonans facing hunger, Fry’s offsets this hardship by sponsoring community food drives throughout the year with food bank partners. Their generous donations and grants to programs in Arizona are designed to feed the hungry plus offer nutrition and food education.
Nutritious, edible food is set aside by all 123 Fry’s Food Stores. Meat, deli, produce, bakery, and dairy are rescued along with nonperishable food items, and are picked up by partnering food programs like St. Vincent de Paul Community Garden; St. Mary’s Food Bank Emergency Food Boxes; Duet Senior Summer Meals Program; Phoenix Rescue Mission: Fill a Bag, Feed a Family; Chicanos Por La Causa Food Pantry; The Mollen Foundation Campus Composting Program; Maricopa Community College Foundation Campus Food Pantries; United Food Bank; and Los Amigos Technology Academy School Garden and Composting Program.
Eliminating Waste
Food waste is food that is considered inedible and not donated for human consumption. Fry’s associates place these items in special bins, which are picked up by partners for livestock feeding and composting. Other items are recycled such as cardboard, plastics, used cooking oil, lamps, ink cartridges, paper, and hazardous waste. Fry’s also partners with other grocery stores to recycle plastic bags statewide.
Energy Savings
Since 2000, a whopping 44.9% savings in electricity costs at Fry’s stores across Arizona have been reported. Tremendous energy-saving efforts have been put into place such as LEDs, lighting motion sensors, case controllers, and enclosing medium-temperature cases with glass doors. Four stores currently use solar panels, 100 stores are Energy Star certified, and the trucking fleet has had a 10% improvement in efficiency.
Fry’s met goals in 2019 such as donating $990K to feed Arizonans; 11 million meals donated; 2,140 tons of food rescued; 107 million pounds of food waste diverted from landfills; 4,306 tons of food waste to feed livestock; 43,987 tons of cardboard and plastics recycled; plus, reduced its energy consumption by 44.9% since 2000.
To learn more, visit www.sustainability.kroger.com.
