TC Food Justice is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Minneapolis. Since March 2016 we have been working with co-ops, grocery stores, and farmers markets to re-distribute their unsalable foods to local hunger relief organizations. We focus on vegetables, fruits, and nutrient rich breads because hunger relief organizations often find it challenging to consistently provide fresh food options for their clients. We seek to improve food insecure individuals’ access to fresh, nutritious food. 

TC Food Justice operates through four core values:

(1) improving health through increased access to nutrient rich food, especially among food insecure individuals,

(2) creating conditions for health and economic equity in the neighborhoods we serve,

(3) executing our work with environmentally sustainable mechanisms, and

(4) engaging the Twin Cities community in the issues of food waste, food insecurity and hunger.

Food rescue program

The largest and longest-running program at TC Food Justice is our Food Rescue Program. This program is the core of our work. We find donors with excess produce that they wish to donate instead of discard; partner with nearby hunger relief organizations to plan weekly produce drop-offs; and coordinate our volunteers to collect, sort, and deliver the food by bike or by car. We are proud to serve smaller grocers and hunger relief organizations that have been excluded from traditional, larger-scale food rescue programs. We deliver food the same or next day, maximizing its quality and likelihood of being consumed. All our deliveries operate free of cost to donor and recipient organizations. 

OUR HISTORY

TCFJ was founded in November of 2015 by five public health professionals while they were in graduate school for their Master of Public Health degrees at the University of Minnesota: Eva Weingartl, Sam Friedrichsen, Mike Kosiak, Hannah Volkman, and Kelzee Tibbetts.  

Their health education inspired them to become active in the community, and their common interest of helping others and the planet led to the development TC Food Justice. They felt that the combined rates of hunger and food waste in the Twin Cities was unacceptable, and as a group, they hoped to find solutions to both issues.