The NO TIME TO Waste Act establishes a new USDA office, creates grant programs, and mandates educational campaigns to achieve a 50% reduction in U.S. food loss and waste by 2030.
Christopher Coons
Senator
DE
The NO TIME TO Waste Act establishes a new Office of Food Loss and Waste within the USDA to coordinate efforts toward a national goal of cutting food waste by 50% by 2030. The bill creates new grant programs to improve food recovery infrastructure and fund public-private partnerships for waste reduction at the local level. It also mandates new federal contractor requirements for food donation and launches a national education campaign focused on consumer behavior and food labeling.
New NO TIME TO Waste Act Mandates Contractor Food Donations, Funds $9.5M for National Food Waste Reduction by 2030
The federal government is getting serious about wasted food. This legislation, officially called the New Opportunities for Technological Innovation, Mitigation, and Education To Overcome Waste Act (or the NO TIME TO Waste Act), sets up a massive new structure inside the Department of Agriculture (USDA) designed to cut food loss and waste by 50% nationwide by the year 2030.
The New Office That Reads the Fine Print
The core of the bill is the creation of the Office of Food Loss and Waste within the USDA (Sec. 3). This new office is the central command for everything related to wasted food, tasked with researching new tech, tracking how much food waste affects climate change, and publishing regular progress reports. For the average person, this means the government is finally centralizing all the scattered efforts into one place, which should lead to better, more effective national policies instead of a patchwork approach. The office is authorized to receive $1.5 million annually just for operations, signaling a serious commitment.
New Money for the Local Food Chain
If you run a food pantry, work for a city government, or manage a local food bank, this bill offers significant new funding opportunities. Section 4 creates a new block grant program for states and Tribal governments to upgrade their food recovery infrastructure. Think new refrigerated trucks, better storage facilities, and real-time tech systems to match surplus food with distribution points. The bill authorizes $2 million annually for this. Likewise, Section 3 includes a grant program specifically for collecting better data on food waste policies, helping local governments prove what works. However, watch out for the fine print: the data collection grants require a 10% match, and the public-private partnership grants (Sec. 7) require a hefty 50% match, which could be a real barrier for smaller, cash-strapped non-profits or rural communities trying to get involved.
The Contractor Mandate: No More “Encouraged” Donations
One of the most significant changes affects federal contractors—the companies providing food services to military bases, government cafeterias, or large federal events. Section 5 shifts the language from merely encouraging them to donate surplus wholesome food to requiring it within 180 days of the bill’s enactment. This is a massive change, forcing large corporate contractors to implement donation programs and report back to the government on their efforts. For food recovery organizations, this should unlock a substantial, predictable new source of donated food that previously might have just been thrown away.
Making Sense of Your Fridge
For consumers, the most visible change will be the national education and awareness campaign (Sec. 8), authorized with $2 million annually. This campaign is designed to tackle one of the biggest sources of food waste: our own homes. It will focus heavily on teaching consumers the difference between food safety and food quality dates—the difference between “Use By” (safety) and “Best If Used By” (quality). If you’ve ever thrown out milk because the date passed, this campaign aims to give you the knowledge to safely reduce that waste. They will also run pilot projects to test different strategies, ensuring the information they send out actually changes behavior.
The Policy Analyst’s Caution Flag
While this bill is packed with positive steps, two areas deserve scrutiny. First, Section 2 defines an “Upcycled Food Product” as having a “good impact on the environment,” but it doesn't specify what metrics the EPA Administrator (Sec. 2) will use to measure that “good impact.” This vagueness could lead to disputes about which products qualify. Second, Section 5, which deals with government collaboration, explicitly exempts any advisory group formed under this law from the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). FACA is usually in place to ensure transparency and public access to advisory meetings. Exempting these groups means that the advice the Secretary of Agriculture receives from industry experts—including large retailers and processors—will happen behind closed doors, potentially reducing public oversight.