Food Circle

Have you ever wondered what happens to all the good food prepared by grocery stores, restaurants, university kitchens and caterers that doesn't get served and is left over at the end of the day? The answer is that much of it is thrown away, and even more would be thrown away if it weren't for our Food Circle program.

This year we will recover about 74,000 pounds of prepared and perishable foods donated to us by Missoula area commercial kitchens and the University of Montana. We will turn these generous contributions into more than 40,000 meals for Missoula's most impoverished families. Working with perishable food requires care and skill.

Our Food Circle coordinator and driver, who are ServSafe certified, carefully record the time and temperatures when food is picked up and again when it is delivered to the Food Bank.
Then it is refrigerated until volunteers repackage it in individual servings, which are labeled, dated and frozen.

All the staff and volunteers who work in the Food Circle have received special training on safe food handling, and the Missoula County Health Department inspects our facilities and processes every year.

Food Circle currently receives donations from the University of Montana Dining and Catering Services, Pizza Hut, China Buffet, Rosauers, Albertson's, Costco, Worden's Market, the Good Food Store and over a dozen Out-to-Lunch vendors.We are very grateful to these generous donors and we welcome any Missoula area commercial kitchen or market to join in their efforts.

Interested parties should contact Dean Thompson, the Food Circle coordinator, who can explain all the details, including the fact that donors are protected from liability by the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act.