🥦 Food for all

Free grocery stores are popping up around the country, helping tackle excessive food waste and providing quality food to the people and families who need it most. 

Most of the stores give their customers freedom of choice, unlike traditional food pantries. Their demographic information is taken at the checkout counter, after which shoppers can take the food free-of-charge. Most food is donated by retailers and restaurants who won't use it before its expiration date – a win-win for everyone.

• “It’s not that you’re coming here because you need food, although that is often very much the case,” Jessica Francis, executive director of Open Cupboard, told the Washington Post.
• “The messaging is ‘this food needs you.’ This is perishable food. It needs to find a home.”