Urban Harvester Newsletter Spring 2018.pdf
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Dear Friends, When we send out our newsletter, it’s always a pleasure to be able to update you on our progress and share a story of goodwill.    One of our local caterers, Happy Trails Catering, told us late last year they were closing their doors. The owner, Kathy Black, was intent after the sale to donate everything left so that it would be well used. She asked me for help in getting the word out to the community about the sale — and the donation of refrigerators, freezers, ovens, serving utensils and cookware.    I received a lovely note from Kathy listing several places to which the big items were donated and followed the trail to an agency that received a three-section professional refrigerator.    Volunteers of America in Pomona will be managing an expanded, all-inclusive, year-round homeless shelter program beginning in July. I spoke to Mary, the partner relations specialist, who referred to their new site as a one-stop shop.  They will offer homeless services to 175 people every 60 days. The program provides housing, social services, job training and referrals all under one roof.    There are so many wonderful things that come from a situation like this. Thousands of dollars in savings will go toward another cycle of helping people. We’ve eliminated a huge piece of equipment from a landfill while providing a conduit to changing lives.    Enjoy our newsletter and we hope to hear from you. Should you need some guidance to begin waste reduction in your own lives, we’ve created a list of recommendations. You’ll find it in our helpful tips column. Thank you for your support. Sincerely, Linda Hess, Founder/Chief Executive Officer Kicking off 2018 Los Angeles Environmental Health Department conducted a Food Recovery informational training session for more than 500 health and food safety inspectors in L.A. County through LACFRI (L.A. County Food Recovery Initiative). “It’s okay to donate food” was the game-changing message for inspectors to carry back to their L.A. County food businesses. In February, Urban Harvester and the North Hollywood Interfaith Food Bank were honored to be co-beneficiaries of a 50s themed fundraising gala. The Congregational Church of the Chimes Community and World Service Board presented the dinner, dance and silent auction. Our sincere thanks to everyone who participated in this special evening. In March, Urban Harvester’s Linda Hess will be a presenter and panelist at the Solid Waste Association of North America conference SWANApalooza in the “Road to Zero Waste” track of the conference. 2018 Moments CCOTC 50’s Fundraiser Gala THANK YOU TO OUR SILENT AUCTION DONORS Proud presenter and panelist at the SWANApalooza conference on March 6, 2018 Looking back at 2017.  In case you missed it, here’s a brief recap of last year: We continue extending our hand by orchestrating extra food donations in and around the Los Angeles area from restaurants, grocers, caterers and film shoots, manufacturers and farmers markets. L.A. City & L.A. Food Policy Council brought together a variety of organizations. Our purpose was to meet & greet with 2-minute presentations to the L.A. City Waste Haulers Franchise to meet their AB 1826 organics diversion objectives.  The Annenberg Foundation held its amazing Alchemy capacity-building and leadership development training. Great tutorials, mentor sessions and networking. We are very grateful for the generous grant we received. Pepperdine University Graziadio Business School invited our UH founder Linda Hess to be their client in a 16-week E2B (Education to Business) MBA course. The objective of this project was to identify alternative solutions to Urban Harvester’s development of proprietary software tools.   Research, presentations and reviews were all part of this intensive course. Special thanks to Pepperdine E2B Program professors Doreen Shanahan and Charla Griffy-Brown. Teamwork placed 14,000 emergency meals/25 pallets of shelf-stable individual meals whose stock was being rotated from a major learning institution. Orange County – #WasteNotOC, L.A. – #UrbanHarvester and #LACFRI. We participated in the Los Angeles Cleantech Innovator (LACI) Spring Cluster to encourage cross-collaboration, agriculture and waste cluster meetings to focus on food waste. Thank you to Clare Fox of L.A. Food Policy Council, LACI and Gina Lee.  UCLA Food Week featured insightful conversations from chefs, farmers, ranchers and scientists. Highlights included conversations with chefs Neal Fraser, Mary Sue Milliken, Massimo Bottura, the Chefs Collective and Corie Brown. The best of summer began by orchestrating the second year of extra food donations from the Altadena Farmers Market, supplying the Grandview Foundation (a sober living and treatment center in Pasadena). Linda presented with the L.A. County Environmental Health Department & LACFRI on food rescue and community impact at the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) Conference in Grand Rapids, Mich. Urban Harvester was part of the film panel discussion “Wasted – The Story of Food Waste,” talking about our positive impact and vision for a successful approach. We introduced Wendy Osmundson, founder of L.A.-based Granola Mama, to the Grandview Foundation in Pasadena to meet the folks where her donated excess food goes. Wendy and Grandview’s Executive Director, Lindy Carll, along with the Grandview chef and kitchen team cooked a wonderful dinner for clients of their program. It was an honor to be a guest for dinner. A letter of thanks brought us a wonderful in-kind donation of 2,000 reusable food storage bags from Evert Fresh, makers of the “Green Bag.”  We are happily sharing them with the community and our donation partners everywhere. South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce invited Linda Hess to be the guest speaker for their “Shop Talk” monthly breakfast. Linda invited co-presenters Bernadet Garcia-Silva, with the L.A. County  Department of Environmental Health and LACFRI, and Amber Duran representing SCS Engineering. Dinner at the Grandview Foundation Panel discussion at the film “Wasted – The Story of Food Waste,” opening weekend Santa Monica, October 2017 Recommended links for further information and research https://www.nrdc.org/issues/food https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food https://www.usda.gov/topics/food-and-nutrition © 2018 Urban Harvester, All rights reserved. To download a pdf of this Newsletter, click here Mailing address: 530 S. Lake Avenue, Suite 785 Pasadena, California USA 91101 Contact us at: [email protected] Our 501C-3 non profit tax status number is 45-2644599 Click here to donate Click here to donate through Amazon Smile Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list

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