Office of Public Affairs
For Immediate Release: May 2, 2019
News Release #2019-12
Media Contact: Lance Klug
California Climate Investments Combat Hunger and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
SACRAMENTO–The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery has awarded $11 million in grants to 36 local projects that prevent waste, reduce pollution, and combat climate change by getting good food to Californians who need it.
CalRecycle’s Food Waste Prevention and Rescue Grant Program aims to reduce methane emissions by keeping edible food out of California landfills through food waste prevention, donation, and redistribution to the 1 in 8 Californians (including 1 in 5 children) who lack the resources to guarantee their next meal.
The estimated 93 million pounds of food diverted from landfills by these projects equates to about 78 million meals, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“Edible food disposal is a humanitarian tragedy and a tremendous waste of California’s resources,” CalRecycle Director Scott Smithline said. “These local food waste prevention and rescue projects make our communities healthier and help California combat climate change by getting us closer to the revolutionary methane reduction targets required under California’s new Organics Recycling and Food Waste Prevention law.”
Food waste makes up nearly 20 percent of California’s disposal stream.
- When sent to landfills, food and other organic waste decomposes and generates methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.
- Besides the opportunity to feed Californians in need, what’s also lost with food waste is money spent along the food production chain, including the cost of energy, water, fertilizer, harvesting, production, storage, and transportation.
CalRecycle’s Food Waste Prevention and Rescue Grant Program is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment—particularly in disadvantaged communities.
Projects eligible for the grant program must be located in California; result in permanent, annual, and measurable greenhouse gas emissions reductions; and increase the quantity of California-generated food materials prevented, reduced, or rescued from disposal. Many of the following grant recipients serve multiple counties.
| Applicant | County | Project Description | Food Waste Averted | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Alameda County Partnering with Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, Deputy Sheriff’s Activities League, ALL IN Alameda County, Unity Council | Alameda | Purchase delivery van, branding software, food storage equipment and marketing to expand program that rescues food from local farmers markets and the Castro Valley, Hayward, and San Lorenzo school districts and trains/hires formerly incarcerated citizens to deliver food to low-income housing sites. | +783,000 lbs. | $266,831 |
| Berkeley Food Network | Alameda | Increase output of Hub Kitchen program to 1,000 weekly meals and expand food recovery network to provide additional food for own pantry distributions and other food assistance programs. | +426,000 lbs. | $121,150 |
| Blue Strike Environmental | Monterey | Purchase forklift, cold storage, food management software, and other equipment to expand and increase efficiency of food recovery efforts for Merced County Food Bank. | +1.7 million lbs. | $492,000 |
Cascadia Consulting Group, Inc. Partnering with San Francisco Department of the Environment | Alameda | Upgrade equipment and enhance systems to prevent food waste and increase food recovery and redistribution at 20 large-scale operations including hospitals, universities, hotels, corporate dining facilities, and entertainment venues. | +35 million lbs. | $500,000 |
City of Arcata Partnering with City of Eureka, Food for People, Humboldt State University | Humboldt | Expand food rescue programs by increasing cold storage capacity, education/outreach efforts, and collection/distribution network among businesses, local institutions, and grocery stores, and through on-campus efforts. | +170,000 lbs. | $163,657 |
| City of Novato | Marin | Purchase refrigerated van and fund outreach effort for countywide ExtraFood food recovery program. | +2.3 million lbs. | $220,500 |
City of Palmdale Partnering with Advancing Communities Together | Los Angeles | Purchase transportation and refrigeration equipment to facilitate the addition of 12 food donation pickup locations, including local schools and vendors. | +556,000 lbs. | $174,000 |
| Community Environmental Council | Santa Barbara | Purchase equipment to expand existing Santa Barbara Food Rescue program enabling the safe receipt and storage of prepared food at three local colleges for redistribution to food-insecure students. | +84,000 lbs. | $116,355 |
| Copia | San Francisco | Purchase equipment, pay drivers, and expand the use of its logistics and technology platform to additional university and hospital kitchens to reduce food waste and collect surplus food for redistribution to students and vulnerable populations. | +1.5 million lbs. | $500,000 |
| Family Resource Center of the Redwoods | Del Norte | Expand Pacific Pantry through infrastructure upgrades, the purchase of a refrigerated vehicle, and the development of a Del Norte Food Recovery Action Plan. | +440,000 lbs. | $302,106 |
| Feeding San Diego | San Diego | Expand existing food rescue and redistribution programs through the purchase of four modified vans and additional onsite cold storage capacity for partner agencies. | +5 million lbs. | $500,000 |
| Food Bank of Contra Costa County | Contra Costa | Purchase a refrigerated hybrid diesel truck and fund personnel to increase food recovery from local grocery stores; supply educational materials for food recipients. | +691,000 lbs. | $296,088 |
Food Forward* Partnering with the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles | Los Angeles | Purchase refrigeration units and refrigerated trucks to increase collection of surplus produce from the downtown LA Wholesale Produce Market and at the Port of Los Angeles for distribution to 33 sites throughout the county. | +3 million lbs. | $428,563 |
| Food In Need of Distribution | Riverside | Expand operations and upgrade equipment at Food In Need of Distribution Food Bank, which currently distributes food to roughly 85,000 people monthly. | +500,000 lbs. | $250,000 |
| Food Recovery Network | San Francisco | Purchase refrigerators and fund transportation and outreach costs to expand food recovery and redistribution in college communities within the network’s California chapters. | +340,000 lbs. | $52,665 |
| FOOD Share, Inc. | Ventura | Build a produce cooler, purchase and staff a refrigerated truck, and expand food storage capacity to facilitate donations from local retailers, manufacturers, wholesalers, processors, schools and other institutions. | +700,000 lbs. | $403,976 |
Fresno Metropolitan Ministry* Partnering with Central California Food Bank | Fresno | Purchase, staff and maintain two cargo vans to expand current food recovery and waste prevention operations to an additional 20 schools. | +2.3 million lbs. | $500,000 |
Galley Solutions Partnering with LeanPath at Kitchens for Good | San Diego | Test a data-driven food waste prevention tool to analyze features, conduct improvements, and expand use in six additional kitchens. | +1.4 million lbs. | $333,821 |
Health Care Without Harm Partnering with Sutter Health | Alameda | Analyze current hospital food waste prevention and rescue projects and engage 10 Central Valley hospital facilities in programs to rescue food from cafeterias for donation using software tracking and transport technology. | +672,000 lbs. | $313,820 |
| Hope 4 the Heart | Alameda | Purchase refrigerated truck, commercial refrigerator/freezer, forklift, and other equipment to expand existing food rescue program. | +1.6 million lbs. | $329,776 |
| Jewish Family Service of San Diego | San Diego | Purchase refrigerators, flash freezers, and box truck to expand current food rescue program and better preserve perishable donations. | +832,000 lbs. | $126,648 |
| Joint Venture Silicon Valley Network* | Santa Clara | Purchase additional trucks and fund staffing to expand mobile food distribution services and increase storage capacity. | +1.1 million lbs. | $350,000 |
| Kern County* | Kern | Expand Waste Hunger Not Food program through purchase of refrigerated box truck and construction of two walk-in refrigeration units. | +612,000 lbs. | $266,795 |
| Lost & Found Distillery, Inc. dba Misadventure & Co. | San Diego | Purchase and install new de-packaging equipment to convert excess baked goods from food banks into beverage products. | +252,000 lbs. | $499,636 |
Marriott International Partnering with LeanPath | Orange | Implement automated food waste tracking and measurement devices at 10 locations to drive actionable analysis and food waste prevention at hotel kitchens. | +498,000 lbs. | $250,745 |
| ProduceGood* | San Diego | Expand Orchard Upcycler gleaning project during high picking season through purchase of cargo van, equipment, and outreach efforts. | +100,000 lbs. | $330,435 |
| Re-plate, Inc.* | Alameda | Expand to more cities through purchase of software and increased storage and staffing, enabling Re-plate to identify and rescue surplus food from businesses for delivery to local food redistribution facilities. | +4.3 million lbs. | $498,000 |
| Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services | Sacramento | Purchase refrigerated truck and fund staff to increase food recovery capacity and enable additional donations from large food donors including manufacturers and wholesalers. | +1.1 million lbs. | $153,562 |
| San Diego Food System Alliance, a Fiscal Project of Leah’s Pantry* | San Diego | Support Save the Food San Diego EcoChallenge consumer education campaign, which includes tracking select universities, jurisdictions, and businesses in pursuit of a 10 percent food waste reduction goal. | +10.2 million lbs. | $220,700 |
| Second Harvest Food Bank Santa Cruz County | Santa Cruz | Purchase refrigerated box truck and forklift, and fund staff to expand collection and distribution of rescued food to communities in need. | +250,000 lbs. | $358,804 |
| SOULMUCH | San Diego | Recover edible, oversupplied grains from large restaurant chains and transform the product into flour to produce vegan cookies. | +493,000 lbs. | $100,441 |
| St. Francis Center* | Los Angeles | Hire staff and fund renovation/expansion of existing kitchen and refrigeration system, allowing shelter to accept donations from grocers, restaurants, food banks, local stores, and farmers markets to feed people in need. | +2.1 million lbs. | $363,846 |
| Waste Not OC Coalition, a Fiscal Project of OneOC* | Orange | Purchase transportation and food preparation and storage items, and fund staffing to implement new food waste reduction and rescue efforts. | +1.3 million lbs. | $492,221 |
| Waste Not Want Not Now | Los Angeles | Hire staff and expand food rescue/redistribution vehicle fleet to enable safe storage and transport of donated food. | +4 million lbs. | $200,000 |
| White Pony Express* | Contra Costa | Purchase refrigeration unit and software, and fund staff to expand existing food rescue program by adding at least six new school pantries. | +2 million lbs. | $286,530 |
| Yolo Food Bank | Yolo | Purchase equipment to maximize efficiency at new warehouse facility, enabling food bank to quadruple its intake and distribution capacity. | +4.6 million lbs. | $500,000 |
| Total | +92.9 million lbs. (+46,450 tons) | $11,263,671 | ||
*Received prior FWPR grant award(s)
Eligible applicants for CalRecycle’s Food Waste Prevention and Rescue Grant Program include cities, counties, and other local agencies; businesses; California universities and colleges; nonprofit organizations; and qualifying Indian Tribes. Applicants may submit cooperative or regional applications with no more than four participants to achieve food recovery projections. Subscribe to CalRecycle’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Grant and Loan Programs Listserv.
What you need to know about California’s New Organics Recycling and Food Waste Prevention Law
SB 1383 (Lara, Chapter 395, Statutes of 2016) builds upon California’s commitment to reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions statewide, improve human health, and create green jobs that support resilient local economies. Starting in 2022, California cities and counties must provide organics recycling collection to all residents and businesses. The law also establishes a statewide edible food recovery target that requires businesses and large generators to donate edible food for distribution to hungry Californians. Get email updates.
For more information contact, the Office of Public Affairs, opa@calrecycle.ca.gov
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CalRecycle's mission is to protect California's environment and climate for the health and prosperity of future generations through the reduction, reuse and recycling of California resources, environmental education, disaster recovery, and the transition from a disposable to a fully circular economy.