So Jack, isn't there a liability aspect to overcome?

It also looks like Sam the Scam's favorite downtown retailer has a lot in common with his least favorite retailer:

At the back entrance on 35th Street, awaiting trash haulers, were bags of garments that appear to have never been worn. And to make sure that they never would be worn or sold, someone had slashed most of them with box cutters or razors, a familiar sight outside H & M’s back door.

There's got to be a way to cover liability AND feed hungry people with safe but soon-to-be-discarded food.

Whole Foods claims that each of their stores participates in helping to reduce waste and hunger, but I believe they're lacking a national policy.

Perhaps govt folks in Portland could at least work towards developing a regional policy or coordination that could address some of the serious hunger problems we have in this state.

Here's another way to handle the issue. But the methane problem is major.

isn't there a liability aspect to overcome?

Wal-Mart apparently has it figured out.

Grocery stores/chains throwing away food is nothing new. 35 years ago,I worked both retail and wharehouse for a major grocery chain and have seen pallets of food thrown away "suspected" to be spoiled.

Retail stores throw so much food away a family of five could live out of most trash boxes.

isn't there a liability aspect to overcome?

'Wal-Mart apparently has it figured out'
So does safeway. I pick up food at my neighborhood safeway for a local charity that has "best by", note not "expired", dates either that day or the next day or two.Trust me, this food is just fine and the people receiving it are VERY, VERY grateful.

"Best by" dates are almost meaningless. And in Boston they have a whole market where much of the produce is warehouse leftovers that were not sold to retailers or restaurants. You have to go by sight and smell to know if a food is truly inedible.

St. Francis dining hall has never turned down my food donations. From too many pears on the tree some years, to untouched leftovers from corporate buffets, to that "free turkey" for buying lots of groceries, to the replaced but still functional microwave oven...

When I was brought up, it was a "sin" to waste food. Call it what you want now, the sentiment is the same.