CRRA2019

Spanish Teacher & World Language Chair

Julio is a Spanish teacher and chair of the World Languages department at American High School. He has a deep passion for social justice work, specifically pertaining to immigration rights and environmental sustainability. Through his role as Science and Eco Club advisor, Julio has supported students in implementing various environmental projects on campus, with an emphasis on educating the school community on food-waste reduction and proper waste-sorting practices. Julio received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Radio, Television, Film, & Theatre from San Jose State University, and his Master of Arts in Education from the National Hispanic University. Last school year, Julio was named Teacher of the Year at American High School.

Julio Navarrete -a Spanish High School teacher- noticed whole fruits, packaged salads and unopened milk cartons being wasted in the cafeteria and sought to take action by setting up a food share table for students to use. With the green light from Child Nutrition Services, the pilot was a huge success, but then there was the question of what happens to the surplus food left on the tables and in the kitchen at the end of the meal service? The natural next step was piloting a donation program. After collecting detailed data and photos on how much food was donated daily from American High for an entire school year, they were able to identify how waste patterns ebbed and flowed seasonally -and realized that this model could be replicated throughout the district. During their first year, nearly one ton of edible food was donated to their local food bank, thanks to student, parent and teacher volunteer drivers. As the result of this community effort, cafeteria staff has embraced the procedures as part of their normal routine. The program was featured on the local news, and publicly supported by the Superintendent, which helped gain interest in replicating their model. It has already influenced the district to introduce food share tables district-wide at all 39 school sites.

Julio will share highlights, photos of donated food, lessons learned and discuss the continuing partnership with StopWaste and FUSD Child Nutrition Services to create a district-wide food donation plan.

Food Waste Reduction Specialist

Annalisa Belliss is a Program Services Specialist at StopWaste specializing in Food Waste Reduction. Over the last 6 years she has worked with school communities across Alameda County on the Stop Food Waste Action Project; with school districts to institutionalize food share tables and school food donation through the Smart Cafeteria Initiative; and with businesses and institutions to track and reduce wasted food through the Smart Kitchen Initiative.

StopWaste played an integral role in converging all the key players and providing infrastructure needed to ensure the success of American High’s food share and donation program, but the program’s success would not have been possible if not for StopWaste’s unique position in being able to work across 17 school districts to glean and share best practices between them all. Annalisa will share how government agencies can provide steady support for new initiatives that can falter when faced with the unique challenges our public school systems face, such as staff turnover, and decreased funding. She will also share how the food rescue data collected from American High has informed pilots in other Alameda County school districts participating in the K-12 Smart Cafeteria Initiative to rescue even more food from schools. Annalisa will share newly developed food share videos that can be used across the state for training staff and building awareness.

Project Manager, Wasted Food Prevention

Geertje Grootenhuis is a Project Manager at the San Diego Food System Alliance, where she manages special projects specifically focused on food waste reduction and food recovery for people (the top two tiers of the EPA Food Recovery Hierarchy). Geertje has initiated and developed relationships with large institutions including The Padres, UCSD, Viejas, and hotel franchises such as Hyatt and Fairmont to implement food waste reduction best practices through the Smart Kitchens San Diego Initiative. In addition, she is responsible for expanding stakeholder engagement and supporting the county-wide utilization of Save The Food San Diego resources. 

Smart Kitchens San Diego (SKSD), is a “Save The Food San Diego” initiative spearheaded by the San Diego Food System Alliance. Fifteen of San Diego County’s largest institutions participate in Smart Kitchens San Diego, which provides sites with food waste tracking technology and connects them with local nonprofit recipients for food donation. Thanks to grant funding from the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) through California Climate Investments, the program is designed to reduce GHG emissions by reducing food waste that would otherwise end up in the landfill.

The diversity of SKSD participants, including sites like Viejas Casino, UCSD, Petco Park, Palomar Medical Center, and the Park Hyatt Aviara hotel, provides a unique opportunity to dive deep into the underlying causes of food waste in a vast array of kitchen settings. Armed with technology provider Leanpath’s automated food waste tracking software, chefs analyze data to identify top wasted items and strategies for cutting back. On average, Leanpath clients see a 50% reduction in overall food waste and a 2-8% reduction in food purchases.

In addition to preventing food waste at the source, SKSD creates an additional diversion opportunity by setting up food donation programs at each participant site. Standard operating procedures for prepared food donation are developed for each kitchen to ensure safe and reliable food rescue. Food donations go to local food recovery agencies to help nourish the growing number of children, families, and individuals facing food insecurity in the San Diego region.

Operations Manager

Karl Go-Reynoso is a Food Operations Manager with Sodexo School Services and consultant at Fremont Unified School District.  He started his career in school nutrition services as an intern with Sodexo’s Leadership Program at San Jose Unified School District.  There, he did an analysis of food production records and recommended changes which helped reduce food waste due to overproduction.  In the years since, food waste reduction and recovery has remained as his top priorities and guiding principles.  Go-Reynoso holds a Bachelor of Science in Hospitality, Tourism and Event Management from San Jose State University. 

Child Nutrition Services Takes on Food Share Rollout After Successful Pilot

In school cafeterias, surplus food is often unavoidable. Child Nutrition Services (CNS) staff are often approached by parents, teachers, and students about this problem with no simple solution. When serving students, CNS must ensure that every child who comes through the lunch line has the choice of every food option offered that day. This creates an inevitable surplus that usually is thrown into the compost bin if unwrapped from its package correctly. However, since unpackaging surplus food is tedious, time-consuming, and disheartening, CNS was eager to learn how American High’s food share and donation program could boost staff morale and put the food to its highest and best use. Having the right infrastructure and procedures in place were critical factors that made the food donation process successful. With technical assistance from StopWaste’s and funding from the Altamont Education Advisory Board, American High acquired a refrigerator to store surplus food for donation. With the right tools and support, it was easy to make small changes in the procedures for kitchen staff to transfer surplus food into the refrigerator instead of throwing it away outside in the dumpsters. Without the backing of Nutrition Services, the food share table and donation program would not have been successful and self-sustaining.

Karl will discuss their lessons learned from the pilot and how Child Nutrition Services continues to play an important role in school food waste prevention and rescue. They will also share how other districts can launch a food recovery and donation program successfully.

StopWaste Ambassador Project Leader

Hugo is a former international student from Montreal, Canada. He started to apply his passion for wasted food reduction during an internship as a sustainability ambassador at Cal State East Bay. There, Hugo was focused on reducing food waste in CSUEB’s dining commons. Hugo had the chance to bring his passion to StopWaste as a Sustainability Associate and spark interest in reducing wasted food at various school sites around Alameda County. He also currently works as the Wasted Food Reduction and Recovery Coordinator for both Oakland and Livermore Unified School Districts.