CRRA2019

Ms. Coelho is currently assisting municipalities with preparations for compliance with California’s Short-lived Climate Pollutant Act known as Senate Bill (SB) 1383. She assists the Counties of Alameda, Monterey and Santa Clara with their solid waste research, program planning and technical assistance. She excels in the development of communication materials, such as tailored video and multimedia outreach materials. She is research oriented, with a strong background in community-based social marketing; outreach and education; data gathering and analysis; and project management.

James has been a Recycling Specialist for Riverside County for three years. He manages school outreach programs for Riverside County schools and the Lamb Canyon Education Center plus he manages the Riverside County Recycles program with the goal of increasing the recycling participation rate across all Riverside County Departments. He is a member of the County Nutrition Action Partners (CNAP) and has completed training as a Technical Advising Professional with the Smarter Lunchroom Movement. He is a Food Waste and Recycling Ambassador for the City of Riverside and he lives in Riverside with his wife and two kids.

Over one third of what goes to the landfill is Organic Waste and about half of that is food. But can it all be rescued?  Maybe. It is time to note the difference between Food Waste and Wasted Food and it is time to discuss how both can be diverted from the landfill in different ways.  Through Riverside County education programs and the City of Riverside Food Waste Prevention and Food Rescue Initiative, both Food Waste and Wasted Food are collected and diverted in ways that help the environment as well as help local families who are food insecure. 

Attendees will receive information about why there is so much food being landfilled and discuss programs and strategies to help reduce and divert this waste stream -- whether it is in the form of Food Waste or Wasted Food.

Chief Operations Officer

Mauricio came to Loaves & Fishes in 2017, with over 20 years of experience in operational leadership in the private sector. He is responsible for the over-all management of Loaves & Fishes meal programs, which deliveries over 550,000 hot meals to food insecure populations in the Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.  Loaves & Fishes took over operational leadership of the A La Carte initiative in June of 2019.

In Silicon Valley, a staggering one in four adults and one in three children are food insecure or at risk of hunger. In Santa Clara County alone, there are more than 200,000 people living under the poverty line. Joint Venture Silicon Valley created a initiative to address both the excess edible food waste headed towards the landfill, and to address hunger in our communities.

A La Carte is the innovative regional approach to the rescue of prepared foods. As a mobile food distribution model, unique to this region, the program is flexible to the needs of both the community and food donors. A La Carte is a fleet of trucks resembling its trendy food truck cousins, that drive all over the region collecting surplus prepared and packaged food from corporate and university campuses, cafeterias, commissaries, and catered events for delivery directly into neighborhoods with high density populations of people in need. A La Carte offers a no-cost, normal, convenient, and dignified experience as people struggle to feed themselves and their families. 

Funded by a combination of foundation and public funds, this initiative is just getting started. In the fall of 2018, a pilot project on Stanford University campus helped us gain the insight needed to launch additional trucks in additional locations. The second truck is expected to launch in San Jose in March 2019.