Each week, ProduceGood volunteers collect some 9,000 pounds -- that's more than four tons -- of surplus fruit and vegetables from dozens of orchards, farmers, residential gardens, neighborhood farmers markets and grocers who donate their excess to feed San Diegans struggling with hunger.
"One in four San Diegans are currently experiencing food insecurity," Program Manager Kiyonna Navarro told club members at our October meeting. Her organization, founded in 2014, distributes the produce through more than 100 feeding partners across the county, including St. Leo's Mission and the Boys & Girls Club branches in Solana Beach. Across the county, the food also goes to shelters, low-income and senior housing projects and food pantries,
The collection and distribution process is a logistical masterpiece. Produce must be checked for freshness and transported to the group's feeding partners on the same day to ensure thousands of healthy servings don't go to waste. The organization tries to schedule gleanings in tandem with distribution events planned by its feeding partners. Aside from a six-person staff, all of the picking, culling and transport is coordinated through a network of some 1,400 volunteers.
Over the past 10 years, Navarro told us, close to six million servings of fruit and vegetables have been upcycled to help alleviate hunger and provide healthy meals. Plus, 950 tons of food waste has been diverted from landfill.
Locally, Jimbos in Carlsbad and Carmel Valley, Costco in Carlsbad and Lazy Acres in Encinitas are among the grocers who work with Produce Good to make sure that aging produce doesn't go to waste. Volunteers cull through the grocer's stock to select items that should be composted, as is required by state law. SB1383 requires that by 2025, California will recover 20 percent of edible food statewide that would otherwise be sent to landfills in order to feed hungry people. Through its Crop Circle program, ProduceGood partners with cities across the county to help them meet state goals. Encinitas is a Crop Circle partner, as are Oceanside, Escondido, Chula Vista and La Mesa.
Many of the growers who partner with ProduceGood are located in Escondido, Poway and Valley Center, but the group sends pickers throughout the county, Navarro said. Farms rangs from large commercial citrus and avocado growers to residential backyards whose vegetable beds and fruit trees are producing more than their gardeners can eat.
Has your harvest exceeded your appetite? You can register as a grower with ProduceGood and donate the bounty. Either pick your own fruit or work with the ProduceGood team to schedule a crew of volunteers to come to your property. The organization has robust insurance and liability coverage, and after the pick, you will receive a receipt -- typically food donations are tax deductible, Navarro noted. To participate, or to recommend an organization who can help distribute recovered produce, call 760.492.3467 or email info@producegood.org.
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