Leftover food for donations?

It would likely be rare to make this happen due to food safety rules. Once that food hits a buffet (your wedding), any leftovers will be close to the point at which they cannot be stored and transported safely for further consumption at a public facility bound by rules when serving food.

Fine for home consumption if you pack it up for yourself, but many shelters will not take leftovers for fear of any foodborne illnesses happening.

Agree with pp, for exactly the same reasons mentioned, this may not be possible. It was in the contract from daughter's venue that NO food (except leftover wedding cake) could be removed from the venue. Possibly if yours is a very DIY venue giving you tons of freedom about what you do, and your caterer is on-board with having to carefully monitor food and ensure it is repacked and stored within food safety guidelines, AND you can find a food bank willing to take it, it might be an option. Honestly, I think it would be much simpler to work with an experienced caterer to plan a menu where it is relatively easy to match the amount of food prepared to what is likely to be eaten, so there isn't much waste. A plated meal can often do that; some people might not eat everything on the plate, but there won't likely tons of unserved leftovers sitting in the kitchen. If you want to give back after your wedding, perhaps you could donate floral arrangements to a senior center or make a cash donation to a foodbank. Good luck!

When I worked for a wedding/reception venue the food could not be donated. The shelters could not accept any food that has been opened or put in a buffet. Even when we did banquets with boxed lunches- if the box had been opened and the inside not touched they could not take it. That would be very difficult to get the venue to put into a contract. My suggestion is to be very aware of how much food you order as to cut down on extras...

I really don’t think there’s typically much left in terms of leftovers unless you are asking your caterer to make extra or you have a bunch of no-shows. Even our bride/groom takeaway boxes were slim since there wasn’t extra food - the guests loved the food and ate it all up!

Our venue doesn't allow any food to be removed from the wedding venue, but I would think for sanitary reason that won't be allowed anyways,

I used to work for a women's shelter. As PP have stated, unfortunately shelters cannot take open food like that.

While it sounds like a great idea and is a great idea unless you take the food and hand it to homeless people yourself, shelters and places like that won't take it. You can however ask that they package up the leftovers at the end of the night and store it overnight and buy some to-go boxes, make plates and go hand them out. Thankfully we had an after party that everything went to and was devoured there. Ours was a taco/nacho bar.

I think it depends on the venue and the shelter!

I have worked weddings and taken food to local shelters (Wayside Christian). It was in untouched tins from the buffet.

Another idea you might like, if you are unable to donate food to a shelter, is recycling your flowers. Lots of brides I've worked with give me permission to take the flowers to children's hospitals or nursing homes. The nursing homes LOVE receiving the flowers - sometimes restrictions keep us from placing flowers in hospitals. Just something to think about!

We actually got all of the leftovers back from the venue (including cake!) and were able to eat that for a few days.

I work at a wedding venue and typically any leftover food goes home with the vendors and venue employees! Rarely ever does food get thrown away, don’t worry!

That's a lovely idea. If they don't allow it then ask if you can take it home yourself? My venue was a restaurant so they allowed leftovers to be taken in to go boxes

We didn't but we did take the extra food back to the hotel. We ended up eating it & our wedding party, so none went to waste. It would have been hard for us. Our wedding ended at 11 PM so no homeless shelters or community centers were open, and we were way out of the way to donate.

I think the only way this would work is if you found the a charity ahead of time that would take donations of leftover food from an event. Then ask your venue about boxing it up and facilitate the the transfer. Like everyone else said, most organizations won't take this kind of food but if you do the legwork, you might find one that does.

Our caterer will be taking the food back, packaging it, and we pick up the leftovers later.
Just as you shouldnt give out homemade goodies at Halloween or send to school with a child, shelters will take issue with foods that could have been tampered with.