Really great news!!!

A local bakery that specializes in gluten free bread, pastries, and cakes reached out to us...

...we didn't reach out to them. They contacted us!...

...about doing food rescue with them!

Not only are they looking at food rescue in general, but they're specifically looking at serving those that are hungry AND have food allergies and intolerances!

Everyone deserves healthy, tasty, good, and safe food (and also desserts!!!) - even those that have food constraints.

So we worked it out. Every day they take whatever they didn't sell and freeze it. We come by once a week and pick it up and run it to one of the fridges!

Look at this first haul!!!

#foodRescue #foodSecurity #solarPunk #freeFridge #goodNews

Updates on my town's Food Rescue initiatives.... Some bad.... and some good.

Bad News is we are no longer working with Food Rescue US. To be very clear, they are a wonderful organization and if you have an opportunity to work with them, by all means do so!

My groups model and their model just don't really align is all. Long and short, they were wanting us to get more food rescue routes quicker than we were able to and when we really couldnt meet their metrics, we both agreed that we should go our separate ways.

Quick Lessons learned here:
- Their model works really well when you have a dedicated and paid staff. It wasn't working well for a community group comprised of volunteers working in their (often minimal) spare time.
- If you do have a dedicated or even paid group, they are AWESOME!!! Great staff. Loads of in house support. Great app.
- If you don't have a dedicated staff and are a smaller community group, it might not be the best fit.

Both parties knew this going into it and we had decided to give it a shot anyhow. It didn't work out. Alas.

Ok. So..... next part is the good news.

With that!!! We have now joined the Food Rescue Alliance (FRA)! They are a mutual-aid group of mutual-aid groups spearheaded by the Boulder (Colorado USA) Food Rescue group.

More info here: https://www.boulderfoodrescue.org/food-rescue-alliance/

They are much more aligned with how we work.

Now, instead of taking orders and meeting metrics from a non-profit corporate model, we operate independently and both rely on and contribute to the greater FRA group members.

This is awesome.

We have access to peer support, best practice information, troubleshooting and guidance, as well as their own food rescue app - Rootable.

Rootable is a Free and Open Source (FOSS) application.

Here is the app website: https://rootable.org

Here is the codebase: https://codeberg.org/rootable/

We're getting set up on it right now. We've been warmly welcomed and have already attended some meetings.

I think this will work out great.

#solarPunk
#foodRescue #foodRescueAlliance #rootableApp

Chapter One: "Here's what happens when a community adopts [our] model: 1. People in need get nourishing food. 2. Perfectly good food is kept out of landfills. 3. Local stores save on dumpster fees and earn goodwill.
We've seen that when food rescue programs take root, crime rates can dip, street solicitation often declines, and community spirit rises."

The week after Valentine's Day featured local artisanal chocolates, & a ton of cut flowers especially red rose bouquets. Since then, lots of artichokes ('tis their season) and avocados. One time, caviar (different brand than before). The usual fresh fruits & veg, often organic (apples, oranges, bananas, romaine lettuces, various greens). There's zero reason for anybody in this society to go hungry and malnourished.

#FoodRescue #hunger #volunteer #MarinCounty

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Solution-Hunger-America-All-Volunteer-ebook/dp/B0G4XJ86DP