CRRA2021

Consultant/Researcher (PhD)

Marie Mourad (PhD) works as an independent consultant and researcher specializing in food waste reduction and sustainability in the U.S. and internationally. She helps government and non-profit agencies prevent food waste and improve food recovery through public policies, market innovations, and behavior change. She is a member of NCRA’s Zero Food Waste Committee and has worked on implementing SB1383 in local jurisdictions in California, including in Santa Clara and Contra Costa County. She helped develop the French national food waste prevention regulation and now supports the French Environmental Agency (Ademe) in promoting “zero waste” and sustainable production and consumption.

Identifying Generators and Outlining the Program: EFR in Contra Costa

Marie Mourad (PhD) will present the work she conducted with a team of consultants for the Joint Power Authority in charge of waste services in West Contra Costa County (RecycleMore) in the early stages of implementing an Edible Food Recovery Program. She will highlight data sources that counties and jurisdictions can use to identify local Tier 1 generators, with a focus on large supermarkets and grocery stores (including listings based on county Department of Health inspections, sales tax permits, NAICS codes, CalRecycle Convenience Zones, US EPA excess food opportunity map, etc.). She will provide an overview of the pros and cons of these resources as well as methods and "tips" to collate them and extract the most relevant information. She will share the survey of generators and food recovery organizations and food recovery services she conducted in the RecycleMore service area to assess current compliance, food recovery capacity, and reporting activities. These results revealed opportunities for improvement, including through synergies at the regional and state level. This presentation will help jurisdictions identify their commercial generators, understand their food recovery “ecosystem”, and start implementing an edible food recovery program in compliance with SB1383 by 2021.

Resource Conservation and Waste Reduction Specialist

Jack Steinmann is a Resource Conservation Specialist with the County of San Mateo Office of Sustainability focusing primarily on SB 1383 implementation and supporting the County’s edible food recovery program. Jack has been involved with food recovery since 2015 when he started San Francisco State University’s food recovery initiative. Since then he’s been involved with food recovery efforts with the Food Recovery Network, the Moscone Center, the City of Hayward, and the NCRA Zero Food Waste Committee. He is committed to sustainability and can't wait to contribute to efforts to reduce and prevent waste across the Peninsula and California.

Bringing Everyone to the Table: EFR in San Mateo County

For the past several years, the County of San Mateo’s Office of Sustainability has worked with each of the different jurisdictions, sanitary districts, JPA’s, and food recovery organizations located within San Mateo County to create one countywide edible food recovery program that will fulfill each jurisdictions' edible food recovery obligations under CA SB 1383. Jack will describe the coordination that led to this unified approach, the partnerships the Office of Sustainability has developed with different food recovery organizations, and the status of the current edible food recovery program. The session attendees will leave with key lessons learned to coordinate multiple stakeholders in their edible food recovery efforts.

Food Rescue Programs Manager

SB1383 Case Studies of Edible Food Recovery (EFR) Programs

Consultant

Susan Blachman is a zero waste/pollution prevention consultant with over 30 years experience. A former Berkeley Zero Waste Commissioner, she consults on SB1383. Clients have included local jurisdictions in Contra Costa and Santa Clara Counties. She co-authored Commercial Food Waste Reduction in Alameda County in 2017, participated in the first ever Zero Food Waste Forum in 2014, and helped organize NCRA’s second Zero Food Waste Forum in 2016. She co-chairs the NCRA's Zero Food Waste Committee and serves on the CRRA Edible Food Recovery Technical Committee. Blachman has a Master in Public Policy from UC Berkeley.

Sustainable Food Programs Coordinator

Erin Meyer is the Sustainable Food Programs Coordinator at the University of California, Merced. She oversees a variety of food rescue and sustainable food programs including, Food Connect, the Bobcat Eats Food Waste Awareness and Prevention Program, the Pop-Up People's Pantry, the People's Fridge and more. 

Edible Food Recovery: Involving and Serving the Community

The Bobcat Eats Food Waste Awareness and Prevention Program is a food rescue program at the University of California, Merced. Food is rescued from cafes, grocery stores, flea markets and farmers' markets. A majority of this food is then used to stock our new community fridge, the People's Fridge, or is distributed at our Pop-Up People's Pantry. The community is involved by encouraging volunteerism, but also by encouraging them to donate their surplus food to the programs, specifically our community fridge. Participants of this session will learn about circular community driven food rescue programs which rescues food to sustain community programs.