We, the residents of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, urge the legislature to support and pass Bill S.1043, legislation aimed at reducing food insecurity and ensuring all residents have access to sufficient, nutritious food.

Bill S.1043 is a bill that will allow a food business that donates food, meals or crops grown, manufactured, packaged or prepared by the food business in the commonwealth to a nonprofit food distribution organization shall be allowed a non-refundable credit from its net taxable income for the taxable year of the donation. The credit shall be equal to the fair market value of the food, meals or crops donated by the business during the taxable year but not to exceed an aggregate credit of $25,000 annually.

We chose this topic because hunger is not always visible, especially in a town such as Sudbury. People hear about food insecurity but they do not realize how big of a deal it is since we life in such an expensive town. Statistics say that every adult wastes about one pound of food per day, which is about 30-40% of the entire U.S. supply.

A lot of small businesses and restaurants also throw away any left over food at the end of the day. We hope this bill will incentivize businesses to donate because it will protect them from being sued if harm comes to someone who ate the donated food.

We created a website to connect small businesses and food pantries. See it below:
https://hunger-collective.base44.app/