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WRCOG details Regional Food Rescue Program outcomes and funding cliff under SB 1383
Summary
WRCOG described results from its Regional Food Rescue Program to help jurisdictions comply with SB 1383: the regional platform expanded to 37 commercial edible food generators and 22 food recovery organizations and reported about 18 million pounds of food recovered; staff warned OWR grant funding sunsets and urged planning for continuity.
Dr. Olivia Sanchez presented the Regional Food Rescue Program (Item 6D) and explained the program was established to help WRCOG member jurisdictions implement SB 1383 edible food recovery requirements. Using the Carrot software platform as a centralized system of record, WRCOG supported inspections, documentation and connections between commercial edible food generators (CEFGs) and food recovery organizations (FROs).
Sanchez said the program increased participating CEFGs from 3 to 37 and FROs from 3 to 22; inspectors completed checks for 111 CEFGs and 19 FROs and found high compliance rates (86% of CEFGs and 95% of FROs meeting SB 1383 requirements in the reported inspections). She reported the program recorded roughly 16,000 donations totaling about 18,000,000 pounds of recovered food and estimated emissions avoided of approximately 25,000 tons of CO2.
Sanchez warned that the Organic Waste Reduction (OWR) grant funding that supported components of the program must be expended by Nov. 30, 2026; no additional OWR allocations are currently anticipated. Committee members asked whether participating cities could continue to use the Carrot platform independently; Sanchez said the Carrot tool itself is free for agencies and partners but the WRCOG setup included dashboard access and reporting; she offered to coordinate a warm handoff and to determine costs for cities to continue the service directly.
The committee received the report as information and encouraged staff to pursue onboarding and warm‑handoff options for participating jurisdictions to maintain compliance.
