Get to Know Bailey Ward

Nearly 40% of all food in the United States goes unsold or uneaten, amounting to 92 billion pounds of waste each year. That’s 145 billion meals discarded annually, even as more and more people struggle with food insecurity. Bloomberg Fellow Bailey Ward and her organization, The Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri, are working to redirect this surplus food to families who need it most.

After graduating from Columbia College in 2019, Ward began working at an ear, nose, and throat clinic in Missouri, and while she loved the patient interaction, she felt unfulfilled. Looking to explore her passion, Ward began volunteering in her community and came across a local urban farm that donated their produce to a local food bank—The Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri. Inspired by their mission, Ward was empowered to join. Now, three years later, she has expanded The Food Bank’s retail donation program, also known as the “Retail Rescue Program,” to include over 250 local donors who collectively help The Food Bank’s network of partner agencies provide the equivalent of nearly four million meals annually.

The Retail Rescue Program partners retailers and restaurants throughout the Food Bank’s 32-county service area with local partner agencies who pick up and distribute food donations to their neighbors. Each year, the program diverts nearly five million pounds of nutritious food from landfills. 

Beyond feeding people, the program has also strengthened relationships between local businesses and the communities they serve. “I often talk to store managers whose own families, neighbors, and employees are utilizing our partner agencies to secure their next meal,” Ward reflects. “When stores know that their efforts are going toward feeding their own community, they become even stronger stewards of this program.”

Looking ahead, Ward hopes to address the root causes of hunger in her community. Recognizing that food insecurity is often driven by complex systemic issues, she applied to the Bloomberg Fellowship to gain the skills needed to work with policymakers and help build secure, lasting foundations for individuals and families in need.

“Working in food banking, I typically only see one side of the food system,” she says, “I have loved getting the opportunity to learn about the complexities of the US food system and begin using my role at The Food Bank to build local food system resilience.”