DonateLee County Solid Waste has created “Donated not Wasted,” a food rescue campaign to encourage seasonal residents and visitors to donate unopened pantry items before returning north.

 

About 70,000 tons, or 13 percent, of the waste stream in Lee County is food, according to a 2016 waste audit. Nationwide, Americans throw out about 30 percent of the available food supply.

 

To help reduce those numbers, unopened canned or dry goods can be dropped off from Sunday, March 18, to April 2 at the Estero Recreation Center, 9200 Corkscrew Palms Blvd.

 

Lee County Solid Waste is asking the public to join the effort along with its partners – the Harry Chapin Food Bank, Waste Pro, FOX4, the Lee County Library System and Lee County Parks & Recreation – to help route food that might otherwise end up in the waste stream to the county’s population of people in need.