Pictured: Have you ever prepared leftover food from an event or party? Contact a local shelter to make sure it doesn’t go to waste.
David Goldstein
Not only does it result in new recycling programs, but a state mandate that local governments must divert food waste from landfills has a positive impact on the environment. Senate Bill 1383 was passed in 2016. It also requires that at minimum 20 percent of edible food be saved for human consumption in the state by 2025.
Abound Food Care, a Ventura County Public Works Agency consultant, is conducting a study to identify local food distributors, grocery shops, restaurants, hotels and other venues.
These state mandates were made in order to reduce climate-changing methane emissions from food that has rotted in landfills. The secondary purpose is to compost, and food recovery is for people in need.
Ventura County’s final goal is crucial. According to Food Share’s website, one in six Ventura County residents suffers from food insecurity. Food Share supplies local food pantries and reports that it provides food to 140,000 people every year.
Food Share has led countywide efforts to recover food in Ventura County. Prior food recovery efforts were primarily focused on produce and shelf-stable packaged foods. To meet the new mandates, however public sector recycling coordinators will have to also find ways to facilitate reuse of prepared food. Monica White, Food Share CEO and President, says that managing prepared food from restaurants and caterers is five times more costly than managing shelf-stable, packaged foods.
The Ventura County Public Health Department’s Waste-Free VC Coalition has provided tools to help grow food rescue and recovery programs. Recently, the department was authorized to spend the final $100,000 of a $500,000 grant from the California Department of Resources Recovery and Recycling. Community Action of Ventura County received grant funding to purchase a truck and a refrigerated truck. The truck was also used to expand the walk-in fridge capacity. Grant funding also helped Spirit of Santa Paula buy a cargo van, two refrigerated trucks, as well as expand a commercial kitchen.
Kay Wilson-Bolton is the volunteer director of Spirit of Santa Paula and explained why she is focusing on prepared, more expensive food. She said that people live with us and need food to eat. Spirit of Santa Paula hosts fifty people, eight of them children, at its homeless shelter. The shelter provides food for dozens of homeless people who are not in the shelter. It also offers services such as showers, mental health and addiction counseling to help people get on their own.
Wilson-Bolton advised that anyone who has a large event with lots of leftover food that was kept at safe temperatures should contact us. Donors should not be concerned about the liability associated with the food, she said. California’s Good Samaritan law was expanded in 2017, California Assembly Bill 1219. This provides legal protection to donors of surplus food that the donor believes is safe for consumption.
Spirit of Santa Paula sends large donations via a refrigerated truck, such as the request of a school cafeteria director for 64 cartons of yogurt. She suggested that smaller donations can be handled by a volunteer who drives his own car and has a cooler in the back.
The amount of food donated and the quality of the food will determine how far volunteers and staff will travel to pick it up. Wilson-Bolton stated that food sufficient to feed 30 people should be picked up in Camarillo unless it is something that we really don’t need like rice.
Russ Wilson, Community Action of Ventura County’s food program coordinator, has similar restrictions regarding collection. Community Action will pick up food within a 15-mile radius if the donor has enough food for 20 people. Individuals and restaurants can send smaller amounts to Community Action, located at 621 Richmond Avenue in Oxnard. Community Action collects from local supermarkets, such as Sprouts, and deli counters throughout the county with new refrigerated trucks.
To volunteer, donate or get food:
David Goldstein, an Environmental Resource Analyst at the Ventura County Public Works Agency can be reached at 805-658 4312 or [email protected].