What Does McDonald's Do With All Its Leftover Food?

Food waste is a major global crisis, and according to Feeding America, 29% of all food goes unsold or uneaten. This adds up to 94 billion pounds of wasted food every year. And while there are reasons why restaurants throw food out at the end of the day, it's still very frustrating — ideally, these leftovers should go to people who are hungry. However, McDonald's does its best to do the right thing by donating food items and unused ingredients to people who need it, though this can depend on location.

"We work with restaurants (both company and franchisee-owned and operated) and our supply chain to donate meals and excess ingredients to families in need," McDonald's explains in its food donation policy. But since there are thousands of McDonald's locations across 100 countries, this isn't always a straightforward process. However, the company and its franchisees take guidance from organizations that specialize in food donation knowledge, like Food Donation Connection (FDC) and The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN), to help with the matter. These organizations aid the restaurant in the redistribution of leftovers and efforts to reduce food waste.

Food donations at McDonald's also happen at a regional level, where franchises set up more localized redistribution systems. Scott Family McDonald's operates stores across Kentucky and Ohio, and as of September 2025, its 15 Ohio locations have donated almost 106,000 leftover food items to local soup kitchens, food banks, and other charities. These organizations show up every week to collect unused McDonald's menu items and ingredients that have been frozen or preserved, then pass them out to families who come to them in need of food. Soon, Scott Family McDonald's hopes to get its Kentucky locations to join the program, too.

Additionally, back in 2020, amidst the beginnings of the COVID-19 pandemic, McDonald's locations everywhere had an excess of food and not so many customers. This came at a time when food insecurity was rising — people were unemployed, and many were sheltering in place. In response to this, McDonald's actually changed its food waste policy, making it so that safe, unused ingredients could be given directly to food banks. This resulted in over 9 million pounds of leftover McDonald's being donated in the U.S. alone, not counting the donations made by the chain in the rest of the world. McDonald's continues to show how global restaurant chains can make a difference in the fight against food waste by thoughtfully partnering with local organizations to feed communities.