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| Long title | An act to encourage the donation of food and grocery products to nonprofit organizations for distribution to needy individuals by giving the Model Good Samaritan Food Donation Act the full force and effect of law. |
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| Citations | |
| Public law | Pub. L. 104–210 (text) (PDF) |
| Statutes at Large | 110 Stat. 3011 |
| Legislative history | |
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The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act was enacted in 1996. It was spearheaded by member of congress, Bill Emerson, who died before the act passed. The law was named after him to recognize his work.
The law provides limited liability for individual, corporation, partnership, organization, association, or governmental entity which donate food to non-profits that feed the hungry. In other words, this law ensures that entities that donate food cannot be sued for proving expired or otherwise unfit to consume food to the hungry. [1]
This law has in place some limits to its protections:
The Federal Food Donation Act of 2008 built on the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act by encouraging federal agencies to donate excess food to nonprofit organizations, utilizing the exemption for civil and criminal liability provided for in the 1996 law. Federal contracts for the purchase of food valued at over $25,000 must make provision for contractors to donate apparently wholesome excess food to nonprofit organizations. [2]
The Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA) was the United States Congress's first notable attempt to regulate pornographic material on the Internet. In the 1997 landmark case Reno v. ACLU, the United States Supreme Court unanimously struck the act's anti-indecency provisions.
Good Samaritan laws offer legal protection to people who give reasonable assistance to those who are, or whom they believe to be injured, ill, in peril, or otherwise incapacitated. The protection is intended to reduce bystanders' hesitation to assist, for fear of being sued or prosecuted for unintentional injury or wrongful death. An example of such a law in common-law areas of Canada: a Good Samaritan doctrine is a legal principle that prevents a rescuer who has voluntarily helped a victim in distress from being successfully sued for wrongdoing. Its purpose is to keep people from being reluctant to help a stranger in need for fear of legal repercussions should they make some mistake in treatment. By contrast, a duty to rescue law requires people to offer assistance and holds those who fail to do so liable.
Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest. It is a practice described in the Hebrew Bible that became a legally enforced entitlement of the poor in a number of Christian kingdoms. Modern day "dumpster diving", when done for food or culinary ingredients, is seen as a similar form of food recovery. Gleaning is also still used to provide nutritious harvested foods for those in need. In the United States, it is used due to the need for a national network to aid food recovery organizations. This is called the National Gleaning Project, which was started by the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law and Graduate School to aid those less fortunate much like the old Christian Kingdoms.
Good Samaritan usually refers to the Parable of the Good Samaritan, a story in the Gospel of Luke that encourages people to help others who are in danger.
A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being.
Norvell William Emerson was an American politician. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Missouri from 1981 until his death from lung cancer in Bethesda, Maryland in 1996. He was succeeded in the House by his widow, Jo Ann Emerson. Emerson was a Republican.
A Campus Kitchen is an on-campus student service program that is a member of the nonprofit organization, The Campus Kitchens Project. At a Campus Kitchen, students use on-campus kitchen space and donated food from their cafeterias to prepare and deliver nourishing meals to their communities.
In different administrative and organizational forms, the Food for Peace program of the United States has provided food assistance around the world for more than 60 years. Approximately 3 billion people in 150 countries have benefited directly from U.S. food assistance. The Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance within the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the U.S. Government's largest provider of overseas food assistance. The food assistance programming is funded primarily through the Food for Peace Act. The Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance also receives International Disaster Assistance Funds through the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) that can be used in emergency settings.
Food rescue, also called food recovery, food salvage or surplus food redistribution, is the practice of gleaning edible food that would otherwise go to waste from places such as farms, produce markets, grocery stores, restaurants, or dining facilities and distributing it to local emergency food programs.
Second Harvest is Canada's largest food rescue charitable organization.
Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent businesses from engaging in fraud or specified unfair practices to gain an advantage over competitors or to mislead consumers. They may also provide additional protection for the general public which may be impacted by a product even when they are not the direct purchaser or consumer of that product. For example, government regulations may require businesses to disclose detailed information about their products—particularly in areas where public health or safety is an issue, such as with food or automobiles.
The Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) is a program that evolved out of surplus commodity donation efforts begun by the USDA in late 1981 to dispose of surplus foods held by the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC). This program was explicitly authorized by the Congress in 1983 when funding was provided to assist states with the costs involved in storing and distributing the commodities. The program originally was entitled the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program when authorized under the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983. The program is now known as The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP).
SIRUM (Supporting Initiatives to Redistribute Unused Medicine) is a non-profit social enterprise started by Stanford University students to decrease the amount of medicine going to waste in the U.S. by redistributing unused, unexpired drugs to safety-net clinics. Using an innovative technology platform, SIRUM saves lives, time, and money by allowing health facilities, manufacturers, wholesalers, and pharmacies to easily donate unused medicine rather than destroy it.
Dive! is an American documentary film directed by Jeremy Seifert.
Food Donation Connection (FDC), LLC is a privately owned American company in Knoxville, Tennessee that serves as a liaison between restaurants/food service companies interested in donating surplus food and local social service agencies that distribute food to people in need. FDC's objective is to redirect prepared food that would otherwise be discarded to help feed the hungry.
The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) began in 1968. It was an amendment to the National School Lunch Act. Today, the SFSP is the largest federal resource available for local sponsors who want to combine a child nutrition program with a summer activity program. Sponsors can be public or private groups, such as non-profit organizations, government entities, churches, universities, and camps. The government reimburses sponsors for the food at a set rate. There are still communities that have not created a Summer Food Service Program in their community. For those individuals that want to help ensure children have meals during the summer, they can get more information from the USDA or their state government agencies.
Executive Order 12999 is a United States Presidential Executive Order signed on April 17, 1996, by President Bill Clinton which permits U.S. federal agencies to transfer excess computers and related peripherals to educational and nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations.
The Good Samaritan Search and Recovery Act of 2013 is a United States bill that would make it easier for qualified volunteer groups to conduct searches for missing persons on federal land. The federal government would be required to issue a permit within 48 hours. Volunteer groups would also be excused from a requirement that they buy insurance if they are willing to waive all federal liability.
The Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015 is an appropriations bill for fiscal year 2015 that would provide funding for the United States Department of Agriculture and related agencies. The bill would appropriate $20.9 billion.
Food Recovery Network (FRN) is a student movement aimed to fight waste and feed people. It was established in 2010 by Evan Ponchick, Ben Simon, Mia Zavalij, Rex Jarrett and Cam Pascual, who were students at the University of Maryland, College Park. They noticed the amount of dining hall food being thrown away at the end of the night. They ended up diverting 30,000 meals to various agencies in the Washington, D.C. area by the end of the school year. The campus also has a food pantry located underneath the dining hall. Their mission is to alleviate food hardship by providing emergency food to UMD students, faculty, and staff in need. Even for students who don't have a dining plan, these services are available to all University of Maryland students, not just students living on campus. By demonstrating a commitment to ensure that students are fueling their minds, no member of the university community goes hungry and plays such a vital role in addressing hunger among college students.
