Agenda Item AGENDA STAFF REPORT ASR Control 16-000631
MEETING DATE:	05/10/16
to:	Orange County Clerk of the Board
legal entity taking action:	Board of Supervisors
SUBMITTING Agency/Department:	Supervisor Nelson
Department contact person(s):	Natalie Wieckert (714) 834-3440
	Denis Bilodeau (714) 834-3440

CATEGORY: Discussion

SUbject:

HCA distribution of information to food facilities regarding food donations

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

1. Direct Orange County Health Care Agency to inform food facilities and operators within the County regarding the safe donation of excess food to food banks and nonprofit organizations.

2. Approve the distribution of written brochure, "The Facts to Know When Donating Food," by Orange County Health Care Agency, Environmental Health Specialists.

3. Direct the Orange County Health Care Agency to report back to the Board of Supervisors regarding its activities pursuant to the Board of Supervisors' directive herein within six months.

SUMMARY/BACKGROUND:

In 2012, Waste Not OC (WNOC) was formed as a public-private partnership with the goal of eliminating hunger and reducing food waste by facilitating the donation of wholesome surplus food from food producing facilities to local pantries. The Orange County Health Care Agency (HCA) has been involved with WNOC's efforts since its inception. HCA's Environmental Health (EH) division has been collaborating with WNOC's efforts since 2014, and has become the first point of contact for promoting food donation and informing food facilities in the County on how to safely donate food.

Since July 2014, the Anaheim-Orange Pilot (Pilot) is WNOC's first effort to identify sources of recoverable food and motivate businesses to donate food. As part of this Pilot, EH's Specialists have actively engaged the owners and operators of food facilities about the topic of food donation and distributed to them a one-page informational brochure that addresses the general liability issue surrounding food donation. This activity occurs during their first official visit of the year to conduct inspection of the food facilities. They also notified the facilities that WNOC representatives will reach out to the food facility owner and operators to answer any questions concerning the safe donation of excess food. Even further, Environmental Health Specialists distributed information about the safe donation of excess food outside the Pilot cities of Anaheim and Orange, whenever opportunities have presented themselves, resulting in numerous examples of food collection. These collective efforts have been very successful in attempting to end hunger in Orange County.

Environmental Health Specialists have become the first point of contact for promoting food donations and informing the business community on how to safely donate food. In addition, the food industry was asked to play a part to end hunger. Accordingly, the food industry created the Food Recovery Task Force, which is one of WNOC's subcommittees. This Task Force bridges the gap between the Environmental Health Specialists and food facilities and operators. As the result of such efforts, 391,745 meals have been recovered since July 2014.

ATTACHMENT(S):

Attachment A-"The Facts to Know When Donating Food"

COUNTY COUNSEL REVIEW: