District finds donating food is easy, reduces waste

Miguel Villarreal has been shaking up dining at the Novato Unified School District for years. As the foodservices and nutrition director, he’s cut back on sugar, removed red meat and brought in local foods. Last year, he began tackling food waste in his district by working with ExtraFood, an organization that delivers excess food to nonprofits that serve the needy.

Villarreal’s actions are motivated by reducing food waste and reducing the hunger in Marin County, Calif., where his district is located. "It’s a more affluent county, but yet there are pockets of economically disadvantaged people living here," says Villarreal.

The process of donating food to ExtraFood is straightforward, he says. Villarreal and his team simply put aside and label food, such as prepared foods and produce, at each of the district’s schools. The food is picked up by volunteers on a schedule that works for the district.

“Our site staff has told us how simple this is,” says Villarreal. “They’re as concerned [about hunger and waste] as I am. Nobody wants to see food waste. They like to see the fact that there are families that are benefiting from this. When you’re able to reduce somebody's food cost and they’re able to take that money and spend in another area that goes a long way.”

Convincing the district that donating was a good idea was another story. “Initially the administration wasn’t too keen on taking on this initiative,” recalls Villarreal. “They said, ‘Why are we giving that food away? Isn’t that food supposed to be given to kids?’”

Villarreal explained to the district’s administration that it’s impossible to predict day to day what students will eat. Students’ tastes change, attendance fluctuates and new dishes don’t always go over as planned, and that's how extra food occurs.

“You have this food that gets left over at the end of the day that just gets disposed and that happens on any given day,” says Villarreal. “That could range from 25 servings to 10 servings to five servings. But when you take 13 schools, it adds up. So the district was initially hesitant, but I finally convinced them that this is an acceptable practice, we’re not violating any policies, in fact, it’s encouraged.”

Marv Zauderer, the founder and chairman of ExtraFood, says that business that donate food are often surprised that there are many laws protecting them from liability. “The USDA and the National School Lunch Act, they explicitly endorse donating foods, but I think that information is probably lost in thick documents,” says Zauderer.

Since starting ExtraFood three years ago, the organization has delivered more than 750,000 pounds of food to 81 sites across the county. Sites include churches, senior housing and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Marin. The organization reaches more than 5,000 people every month and has recently delivered its 10,000th donation. In addition to the school district, Zauderer's group accepts food from farms, grocery stores, farmers’ market, caterers, restaurants, corporate cafeterias, hospitals, hotels and bakeries.

ExtraFood takes precautions to ensure that the food it delivers is fresh. It does not hold or store any food, and perishable food is placed in industrial-grade food delivery bags with ice packs. The company takes food directly, and recipients always receive food in under 30 minutes, says Zauderer.

Villarreal imagines that many of his peers don’t realize how simple it is to donate. He believes there is also a lack of realization of how many people go hungry and how much food winds up in landfills.

That’s something ExtraFood would like to change.

“It’s not well known how easy it is to participate in a program like ours,” says Zauderer. He also stresses that donating food can actually save businesses and schools money as they can save on disposal fees.

But getting a new business on board to donate often takes an advocate like Villarreal.

"For us, it always starts with finding a champion, someone who is as passionate about reducing waste and serving the hungry as we are, because indeed, there are always people in authority who have to approve before this can happen," says Zauderer. "So it starts there."