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Recovered food is good-to-eat food that is rescued by volunteers from grocery stores, restaurants, farms, ranches, and private donors. The food we rescue is kept at the correct temperature and stored safely until distribution. If we wouldn’t take it home to our own families, we don’t distribute it.
By recovering food, we can offer families a greater variety of wholesome food, reduce waste, improve America’s nutrition security, and fight climate change.
Al recuperar alimentos, podemos ofrecer a las familias una mayor variedad de alimentos saludables, reducir el desperdicio, mejorar la seguridad nutricional de Estados Unidos y luchar contra el cambio climático.
Because everyone should be able to eat well
Porque todas deberían poder comer bien
Because food brings us together
Porque la comida nos une
Offer Families Wholesome Food:
The food we offer families comes from many sources including food that is rescued instead of wasted.
Adelante volunteers pick up donations from Trader Joe’s WL and TO, Whole Foods, and Target WLV. This is food that can’t be sold to their customers even though it is still delicious and nutritious. Volunteers glean the donations before we offer them to families.
Food is donated for many reasons. Sometimes the next order is arriving, and shelves have to be cleared. Other times, it’s an ordering mistake or packaging misprint. Sometimes, cases get dropped and the store assumes damage to the contents.
Reduce Waste:
You know how when you go to the market there might be a carton of eggs with one egg that’s cracked? You put it aside, right? Well the store donates those cartons to food pantries. Then our volunteers repack the uncracked eggs, and we offer them to families.
If produce is getting too ripe or there’s a few moldy berries in a clam pack, or it’s approaching the sell-by date, they give it to us. Our volunteers glean the rescued food. If we wouldn’t bring home for our families, we don’t offer it to Adelante families. Sometimes an item is still good but doesn’t look too great, that’s the stuff we send home with our volunteers. If we can’t save it, we always put it in the compost/organics container because food left to rot in the landfill produces harmful methane gas.
Big stores partner, by California law, with food banks (in our case with Food Share of Ventura County). Affiliates, like Adelante, are offered scheduled store days/times for our volunteers to pick up donations. Adelante’s regular pick-up partners are Trader Joe’s TO and WL, Target WLV, and Whole Foods TO - all on the 2nd and 4th Friday mornings of the month. Sign up to volunteer!
Food Forward arranges for us to pick up at the Thousand Oaks Farmers Market and from local ranchers and homes with fruit trees. Ventura County is a great place to rescue produce! Once a month, volunteers drive down to Bell where the Food Forward warehouse is located. They pick up 2 pallets of donated fresh produce.
Improve America’s Nutrition Security:
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is focused on expanding access to and increasing consumption of safe, healthy, affordable foods that are essential to optimal health and well-being. Improving what Americans eat significantly reduces diet-related chronic diseases and disparities in health outcomes.
The Emergency Food Assistance Program, (TEFAP) links American farmers to the food bank distribution network. This system, funded by tax dollars, provides stability to the American food commodity markets, helps protect farmers and ranchers from fluctuations in market prices due to weather and foreign competition, prevents food produced in the US from going to waste, provides safe, healthy, affordable foods to food banks, schools, and other public institutions, and preserves American grown food sources.
Fight Climate Change:
Upwards of 40% of the food produced in the United States ends up in a landfill or rotting in fields and orchards. Beyond the shameful waste, damage is done to our climate by rotting food. When food decomposes, methane gas is produced. Methane is especially damaging to our climate and air quality. By rescuing food and composting what can’t be eaten, we reduce climate change and promote better health for ourselves and the planet.
In addition to our food rescue efforts, Adelante practices and promotes food composting and recycling.