Here's What Papa Johns Does With Its Leftover Food

With thousands of restaurants across the United States and the rest of the world, Papa John's produces a huge amount of food on a daily basis. Through its Harvest Program, the world's third largest pizza delivery chain has been one of several major restaurant chains trying to make good use of their surplus food in the wider community.

Launched in 2010, the Harvest Program helps Papa John's to donate its surplus or unused food to charity. This doesn't include half-eaten food left by customers, which obviously cannot be reused once purchased. Since the launch of its program, the pizza chain claims to have donated 4.2 million meals of food across more than 280 community organizations in the United States.

The program is run in partnership with Food Donation Connection, an organization dedicated to reducing the estimated 96 billion pounds of food waste produced in the U.S. each year. Papa John's isn't the only household name donating food via Food Donation Connection: They also run Harvest Food programs with KFC, Whole Foods, Pizza Hut, and Olive Garden, among many more. Food Donation Connection provides a straightforward six step donation process for donor partners to follow, then they handle the distribution of the donated food to a local charities and other worthy recipients such as food banks and food rescue organizations, including City Harvest. 

The Harvest Program is open to any of Papa Johns corporate and franchisee restaurants, and involves 95% of Papa John's corporate-owned restaurants. With Food Donation Connections logistic and operational help, the participating Papa John's restaurant locations provide surplus food that either hasn't been sold, was unclaimed after an abandoned orders, or resulted from an incorrectly made order. Instead of it becoming food waste and going into landfill, this surplus can be used to help alleviate hunger for some of the approximately 48 million people across the United States who experience food insecurity. 

The issue of food waste is a global one, and while the U.S. isn't the worst per capita food waste offender, it's not far from it. However, local solutions like the Papa John's Harvest Program provide a dual benefit, reducing food waste while simultaneously tackling hunger in local communities. The program has the ambitious goal of donating 10 million meals by 2027. If they can reach it, that level of social impact could help to boost their reputation and contribute to a potential comeback for the pizza giant in 2026. Plus, participating businesses in the U.S. benefit from an enhanced tax deduction, allowing them to claim back double the basis value of the donated food, making the Harvest Program it a savvy business decision as well as means of tackling community hunger and reducing food waste.