Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Food Recovery topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
SF Market honored for large-scale food recovery; department awards Zero Waste grant
Summary
The commission presented the 2020 Environmental Service Award to SF Market for its food-recovery program. Staff said the market has organized daily recovery operations and partnerships that have, according to presenters, diverted large quantities of food for redistribution and that the department will support the market with a Zero Waste grant.
The Commission on the Environment presented its 2020 Environmental Service Award to the SF Market on Jan. 28, 2020, recognizing the market's food-recovery program and partnership work to redirect surplus healthy food to community organizations.
Commissioner Stevenson presented the award to market staff including Carolyn Lazar (food recovery coordinator) and Janet Cordier (markets program manager). Commissioners praised the program as an example of combining environmental goals and community benefit.
SF Market staff described how they collect surplus produce from merchants, catalog donations and coordinate distribution to more than 20 community partners ranging from neighborhood pantries to larger food banks. Presenters cited two figures during the discussion: one slide referenced diversion in the range of "10–27 tons" for a specific recent period, while later comments said that since 2016 the program has donated about 2,800,000 pounds of food. Staff said the Department of the Environment awarded the market a Zero Waste grant to support food recovery operations and staffing.
Commissioners invited the commission and staff to tour the market and thanked SF Market leaders and volunteers for their work.
