Given the growing chasm between the places where food is grown and cultivated and the places where we take ownership of it—often a supermarket—it is easy to forget that food is the successful outcome of someone’s learning, their history. It is the result of care and attention. It is both time and energy. Food is a commodity sold and a gift to be shared. It is a reason to come home. It is encouragement and healing. Food is a necessity.
 
Yet despite our coordinated systems and tireless pursuit of volume, despite all of our successes, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1 in 8 people struggle with food insecurity. They struggle for access to food in a place where we send 4.25 billion pounds of food to landfills each year.
 
And because we acknowledge that food-insecure children face increased challenges in school, that people who are food insecure are almost four times more likely to develop anxiety and depression, and that food insecurity increases the risk of chronic health conditions, Pennsylvanians have developed coordinated systems to respond to the issue.
 
But we can do more. That is why I am proposing another step forward, modeled on legislation from New York, that will increase food donations to food banks and other similar providers. This legislation will call for certain large generators, which may include restaurants, grocery stores, hotels, higher education institutions, malls, and event centers, to make available excess food to Pennsylvania-based charities. In the alternative, these large generators will be required to separate and recycle all remaining food scraps should such an opportunity be reasonably available.
 
Nobody in this Commonwealth should struggle for access to food. Neither should we tolerate such waste to come from such prosperity. Please join me in addressing food insecurity by cosponsoring this legislation.