New California law requires more businesses donate, not toss, excess food

Zara Barker
·3 min read
2

SAN DIEGO — California Senate Bill 1383 just expanded on Jan. 1 to require more businesses and events to donate excess food to food recovery organizations.

Data estimates that nationally there are 44 million people who are food insecure, and locally it’s estimated there are more than 300,000 people food insecure in San Diego. Experts are hoping this expanded law will mean more food on the table for Californians experiencing food insecurity, and less food in the trash.

“This bill does two things, its a win-win, it’s keeping food out of the landfill that will then turn into methane and .its also feeding people,” Feeding San Diego COO Patty O’Connor said.

The law first went into affect in 2022 and impacted businesses including supermarkets, grocery stores, wholesale food vendors, etc.

Now that the law is expanded, it impacts:

  • Restaurants: Restaurant with 250 or more seats, or a total facility size equal to or greater than 5,000 square feet.

  • Hotels: Hotel with an on-site food facility and 200 or more rooms.

  • Health Facilities: Health facility with an on-site food facility and 100 or more beds.

  • Large Venues: Large venue means a permanent venue facility that annually seats or serves an average of more than 2,000 individuals within the grounds of the facility per day of operation.

  • Large Events: Large events means an event, including, but not limited to, a sporting event, a flea market or a festival, that charges an admission price, or is operated by a local agency, and serves an average of more than 2,000 individuals per day of operation of the event, at a location that includes, but is not limited to, a public, nonprofit, or privately owned park, parking lot, golf course, street system, or other open space when being used for an event.

  • State Agencies: A state agency with a cafeteria with 250 or more seats or a total cafeteria facility size equal to or greater than 5,000 square feet.

  • Local Education Agencies: A local education agency with an on-site food facility. Local education agency means a school district, charter school, or county office of education that is not subject to the control of city or county regulations.

“It will impact companies or organizations like Snapdragon, even school districts,” O’Connor added.

“Californians throw away 5 to 6 million tons of food waste every year,” according to CalRecycle. “SB 1383 requires that businesses donate surplus food instead of throwing it out.”

“What happens to food when it goes to the landfill, it produces methane gas and methane gas is a super pollutant, it’s 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide, so the whole idea of the bill is to keep food out of the landfill,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor said when tier one of the law went into affect in 2022, they added more than 70 donors, and now they’re expecting to add even more.

“We do 876 pick ups a week, we have our partners going directly to grocery stores, or even Amazon, Costco, Target, Ralph’s,” O’Connor said. “So every single day there’s people all across San Diego picking up excess food from grocery stores, bringing it back to their local neighborhoods and distributing it for free.”

O’Connor hopes this new law will open more companies eyes to the amount of food that’s wasted and help find a better home for it, even if it’s not state-required. She recommended some business who may not be part of the law, to give the left over food to their employees, instead of throwing it away and letting it go to a landfill.

If you need food, visit feedingsandiego.org.

O’Connor anticipates this could result in an increase in several hundred thousands of pounds of food donated to Feeding San Diego in a year.

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