Food Recovery

Food Recovery at Farmers Market

Location/Club:  Solana Beach Eco Rotary Club, District 5340 / California, USA

Project Partners: ProduceGood

Description

The Solana Beach Eco Rotary Club partnered with ProduceGood, a gleaning non-profit organization to help recover unsold fresh produce at a Farmers Market in Solana Beach, California, USA. Each Sunday, at the end of the Farmers Market, rotating teams of two Rotarians collected vegetables and fruits from vendors. This fresh produce was donated from vendors, collected by Rotarians and then given to a local food pantry. ProduceGood with the help the Rotarians is closing the loop to save food and give it back to the community. During the 6-month long project, Rotarians gleaned 3,800 lbs of produce, that is equivalent to 11,400 servings of food. This helped avoid creating about 4 metric tons of CO2eq.

The Food Waste Task Force hosted a presentation done Nita Kurmins Gilson, Executive Director at ProduceGood to help the team understand the challenges, the successes, and how to implement similar projects around the US and possibly around the world. For more information, please contact the Food Waste Task Force.