Capacity Planning for Food Recovery

 

The law requires mandated food donors to donate the maximum amount of their still-fresh food they would have sent to landfills.
The law sets a target for the entire state to recover 20% of edible food that had been sent to landfills before the law passed.

Counties Lead Local Food Recovery Effort

Jurisdictions must make sure their community has enough capacity to recover all unsold, edible food from local food donors.

Coordinating with cities, regional agencies, and special districts that provide solid waste collection services in the county, county governments must:

  • Estimate how much unsold, edible food mandated food donors should send to food rescues, instead of landfills.
  • Identify how much capacity local food rescue programs have to recover this donated food.
  • Identify if more capacity is needed to recover all unsold, edible food from mandated food donors in the county’s jurisdictions.
  • Create any infrastructure still needed to recover all surplus, edible food that businesses could donate.
A palette of fresh produce sits in a warehouse waiting to be distributed to needy Californians

Capacity Planning Assessment

A capacity planning assessment could include these questions:

  • How much still-fresh food could local food donors donate?
  • How many food recovery organizations and services operate in the jurisdiction?
  • What infrastructure and how much capacity do these recovery organizations and services have?
  • Are there plans to purchase or build new infrastructure?
  • How much food do these groups currently recover?
  • What kinds of food do these groups recover? (e.g. produce, fresh grocery, cold prepared foods, hot prepared foods, etc.)
  • How much additional food could they recover a month?
  • What types of food donors do they typically recover food from? (e.g. wholesalers, supermarkets, restaurants, hotels, etc.)
  • How many new food donors could they add?
  • What staff or infrastructure do they need to recover more food from new donors? (e.g. paid staff and drivers, refrigerated space and vehicles, storage, kitchen equipment, and software to match donors to rescues and to manage inventory)
  • What new infrastructure and funding is needed overall?
  • Are there proposals to expand programs to recover all the food donors expect to donate?

The county, in coordination with jurisdictions and regional agencies in the county, must consult with food recovery organizations and services about existing or proposed new food recovery capacity.

If a county identifies a need for more food recovery capacity, each of its jurisdictions must submit an implementation schedule to CalRecycle with a plan to create enough capacity to recover all of the still-fresh, unsold food donatable by mandated food donors.

Food Recovery Capacity Planning Tools

Identifying Mandated Food Donors

Jurisdictions must identify which food donors must donate unsold food.

Guidance for Jurisdictions: How to Identify SB 1383 Commercial Edible Food Generators

How to Estimate for Food Recovery Amounts

Food Recovery Capacity Calculator

This Excel-based tool will help jurisdictions estimate:

  • The amount and types of unsold food mandated food donors could donate
  • The amount of existing capacity available at food recovery organizations
  • The amount of new food recovery capacity needed 

Guidance to Estimate Donatable Food Amounts

To estimate how much still-fresh food is unsold by food donors:

  • Refer to the guidance document when using the calculator to identify multiplication factors or
  • Provide factors of your own 

Food Recovery Capacity Survey

This survey template complements the calculator tool and helps jurisdictions determine if they have enough infrastructure and capacity to recover the amount of food that could be donated.

Jurisdictions can collect information about current food recovery capacity. To customize the survey:

  1. Add, remove, or edit questions
  2. Send it out to local food recovery organizations and services

Capacity Planning Tools Webinar

This CalRecycle webinar explains the importance of food recovery capacity planning and more details about planning tools.

These guidance tools on this page were developed by CalRecycle as a courtesy for informational and example purposes only. Use of these tools is optional and is not a regulatory requirement. In the event of any conflict with these guidance tools or information herein, applicable statutory and regulatory provisions shall control. These tools and information herein are based on known facts and legal authority as understood by CalRecycle at the time of release. Any analysis, guidance, or other information herein may be subject to change based on changed facts or legal authority, actual or understood, subsequent to the publishing of these tools. The provision of these guidance tools and any analysis, guidance, or other information herein shall not be construed as a waiver of any rights or remedies available to CalRecycle. Users are encouraged to seek the assistance of legal counsel to comply with applicable state law based on their pertinent facts and circumstances. CalRecycle makes no representation that use of these tools will ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. The user assumes all risk and CalRecycle accepts no responsibility or liability to any person because of the use of, or reliance upon, these tools or the information herein.

Reporting

Capacity planning also helps jurisdictions gather information they must report to CalRecycle, including:

  • The number of mandated food donors in the jurisdiction.
  • The number of food recovery organizations in the jurisdiction with written agreements with mandated food donors.
  • Total pounds of still-fresh food rescued by food recovery organizations with written agreements.
    • Food recovery organizations and services that choose to have these written agreements:
      • Must report the total pounds collected in the previous calendar year to the jurisdiction where their primary address is located.
      • Are only required to report the total pounds collected from the mandated food donors they have written agreements with, as required by SB 1383.

Implementation Schedule

Jurisdictions that have not identified enough existing or new food recovery capacity must submit an implementation schedule to CalRecycle that must include timelines and milestones for planning new capacity, including:

  1. Getting funding for edible food recovery infrastructure, including modifying franchise agreements or demonstrating other means of financially supporting the expansion of food recovery capacity.
  2. Identifying facilities, operations, and activities in the county that could increase food recovery capacity.

Related Links

For more information contact: Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCP), Organic Waste Methane Emissions Reductions, SLCP.organics@calrecycle.ca.gov