Some businesses will now have to divert their leftover food from landfills. The change is a new aspect of Senate Bill 1383, also known as California’s Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Law.
Why it matters
It's meant to help reduce food waste going into landfills to combat climate change.
But Feeding San Diego’s Kate Garrett said the leftover food will also allow them to better help the 300,000 San Diegans facing food insecurity — including nearly 80,000 children.
“This law is actually requiring businesses that never really had donations as part of their business plan, as part of their model, to now start looking to food recovery organizations like Feeding San Diego to take care of the logistics, to pick up anything that they would have otherwise put in the trash can," Garrett said.
By the numbers
Now hotels, health facilities with more than 100 beds, event venues, school districts, restaurants that seat more than 250 people and others have to comply with the law.
Last year, Garrett said, Feeding San Diego diverted more than 31 million pounds of food from the landfill.
“Of that 31 million pounds that we recovered or diverted from the landfill, we were able to serve over 35 million meals to San Diegans in need,” Garrett noted.
Feeding San Diego currently has agreements with over 85 food donors as part of SB 1383.
Closer look
“We know that there are people out there facing food insecurity," Garrett said. "We also know that nearly 40% of all the food in the U.S. goes to waste every year. So the food is out there. It’s not a scarcity problem, it’s a distribution problem.”
Representatives of Snapdragon Stadium sent a statement saying they will donate any excess edible food to Feeding San Diego after events at the stadium.
