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Date: 3/30/2022
SOUTH HADLEY – Pioneer Moving Group has created an innovative system to help people who are moving and the community with one simple effort.
The company is launching its new Pioneer Program that will help turn household food waste into donations. With the typical waste that comes from the emptying of a food pantry when people move out of their homes, it can and has resulted in a large amount of wasted food.
The Pioneer Program will collect non-perishable foods from residents who are getting rid of items they don’t need and will distribute it to shelters and food banks. The program is free to everyone involved and is simple to participate.
Pioneer Moving Group owner Brian Clark said from his own experiences in the field he has seen countless amounts of food go to waste during a move. After noticing the large amounts of food going to waste that could have been spared, he figured residents he is helping move would be more than happy to have someone else take on the leftover items.
“I’ve been involved in the moving industry for about 12 years now. In my years of sales [in the moving industry] I would always try to direct people, ‘Hey listen, I know you’re going to purge.’ When you move, people try to get rid of old stuff and old things they don’t use,” Clark said. “I would say, ‘Just donate your canned goods to a local shelter. If you’re going to throw it away just donate it.’”
Clark added that while his suggestions were positively received, many people would just forget as the stresses of moving would outweigh where to put the remaining food in the house, resulting in the food waste. When starting his own company Pioneer Movers in September 2021, it became a top priority for Clark to establish a solution to this problem.
“We’re very community oriented. I like to participate in as many community events as we can. It just seemed like an easy way to help people in need. Local shelters, local food banks, whatever it may be,” Clark said. “It really wasn’t a very costly expense on my part.”
Consumers can obtain a Pioneer Program box from a realtor, rental office or another local business. Participants fill their box with non-perishable and non-expired foods before calling the Pioneer Program to promptly pick up the box for them. The team will then bring the box to a local food pantry or homeless shelter for distribution.
“It just seemed like a no-brainer. Most people in normal circumstances would not waste food like that or would donate it themselves,” Clark said. “But moving is so stressful with lots of things going on. Many times, the pantry is an afterthought and they’ve run out of time to do anything else but throw everything away.”
Pioneer Moving donates the boxes and their labor time in collecting and delivering the food and according to Clark he is offering residents he helps move a 10 percent discount if they can donate a box full of non-perishable and on-expired foods on their way out.
“In an average year in coordinating moves, I would do about 350 moves a year and I would say at least 300 of those, I knew there was going to be some food that would be thrown away,” Clark said.
Clark added his inspiration for the idea came from the national company Move for Hunger that works in a similar fashion in preserving food waste. Clark said with certain difficult hoops to jump through to partner with the national company, he would just take the premise and bring it to the local level through his own company.
According to American Community Survey (ACS) data, for the past five years just over 40 million Americans moved each year. That calculates to about 13 percent of Americans moving each year. Clark said even a small percentage of those households donating their unwanted food to a local food pantry would make a difference in the country’s hunger problem.
“Our goal is to help people. We’re all here, all our guys are local people. I’m from South Hadley. We’re help to help people and that’s what we do,” Clark said. “I’m proud of the fact that we can do this, not for a selfish purpose but more to the fact that we are doing what needs to get done. With this amount of waste, there’s people out there who need help.”
Clark also credited growing up in a big family to his willingness to help people out and do the right thing.
The company is based in South Hadley, but they will be looking at a variety of shelters and food pantries to help serve with the leftovers they collect.
“In reality it’s whoever needs boxes or goods. I will reach out to a handful of them, and they’ll tell me what they need or what they want and then we will just work with all of them pretty much,” Clark said.
For any questions for Pioneer Moving or questions on their Pioneer Program, you can email the company at hello@pioneermovinggroup.com.