TROTWOOD, Ohio — Every weekend, when she sets her spread of food in front of the Trotwood Library, Jen Burns is surprised to see just how fast it goes.
After spending the week securing donations from farms, grocery stores, and anyone else with excess food to share, she spends Sundays opening up an ever-growing produce stand. Burns invites everyone to come to take their pick from the table to share with their family and neighbors, all for free.
Burns said she never truly understood where Dayton’s food supply was coming from, where it was going, and just how much of it went to waste until she worked for a grocery store,
“I just saw massive amounts of food being thrown away and then learned that one in six people in the Dayton area don’t have access to fresh food,” she said.
More food ends up in U.S. landfills than any other type of everyday trash, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The issue got Burns interested in a growing effort called food rescue or taking perfectly good, but maybe not sellable food and distributing it to those who need it most.
In 2019 she founded Access to Excess to do just that, starting with her own neighborhood.
“(My partner) and I live in Trotwood so we know how hard it is to get fresh produce,” she said.
The suburb northwest of Dayton lost its last grocery store in 2019, making it a food desert.
Locals like Gail Miller said they’ve had to look farther and farther out of the neighborhood to get what they need.
“With all the prices rising and you think about gas and you have to drive somewhere and the gas prices going up it makes a difference,” she said.
That’s why Miller said she’s been coming to Access to Excess’s stand outside the Trotwood Library for the past six weeks.
“It really is a blessing,” she said.
Burns said the Trotwood stand is their longest-running, most consistent, and busiest, which is why it’s always a priority to ensure it's fully stocked with almost any type of produce her neighbors might need.
“Then we also set up at elementary schools and other libraries, other business hubs other places to distribute produce to people who don’t otherwise have access to it, she said.”
Burns said Access to Excess gets most of its stock from area farmers, who provide produce that might be too small or misshapen to sell, but it’s perfectly good to eat.
“Choice is really important to us,” she said. “We like the distribution to be quick easy, people can take what they’d like.”
Meanwhile, grocery stores will provide pantry items or fruit that are closing in on their sell-by dates and need to be cooked right away.
Typically, Burns said the stands last about an hour with little leftover by the end. But if there is more food, she sends it off to area pantries or groups like Miami Valley Meals to cook free meals.
Burns runs the nonprofit throughout the year, but she said winter is always harder.
She said farms have a more limited harvest so she has been trying to diversify her partnerships with more grocers and others who may have offerings year-round.
“Everyone always has excess,” she said.
Since its inception, Access to Excess has hosted more than 200 stands throughout the Dayton area, rescuing thousands of pounds of produce.