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Youth Blog: Hunger in Marin- What Can You Do?

February 7, 2017 by Jennifer Hammond

Despite being one of the wealthiest counties in the nation, Marin County has a widespread population of people who are food insecure. Food insecurity is the state of living without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. Food insecurity is having to choose between impossible decisions like having the food you need or having shelter and a place to live.

There are nearly 50,000 people in Marin County who are food insecure, and worry about where their next meal is coming from. In Marin, over 16,000 seniors are food insecure. Many seniors have a difficult time getting access to fresh produce and affording nutritious foods. In a recent survey of 3,000 seniors, 46% report running out of money for food each month. On top of this, 3,500 seniors over 65 have annual incomes below the Federal Poverty Level of $11,670. These alarming and distressing facts demand change and require community effort to ensure that everyone in Marin has access to fresh, healthy, nutritious foods.

Marv Zauderer, founder of ExtraFood, came up with one solution. The United States has an extremely high rate of food waste, at a rate of over 40% (Zauderer). That means for every ten apples you buy, four of them go rotten! This rate of food waste is unacceptable, given the number of people in our local community who are food insecure on a daily basis. Zauderer founded ExtraFood because he witnessed how many people in this county were food insecure, and wanted to ease people’s worries about where their next meal was coming from. So much food was not being eaten and Zauderer realized how this “creates unnecessary waste and is bad for the environment.”

Zauderer decided to tackle the issue of food waste and food insecurity by creating a system to recover fresh healthy food that would normally go to waste and donate it to someone in need. ExtraFood picks up excess fresh foods from organizations and businesses and delivers them immediately to various nonprofits that serve Marin’s population of hungry people. The foods that they deliver include fresh produce, prepared food, eggs, meat, dairy, packaged goods, and baked goods. According to Zauderer, “ExtraFood delivers food to more than 5,000 people per month to over 80 different sites around the county.” In three years of operation, ExtraFood has delivered over 900,000 pounds of food collected from over 150 donors to almost 83 different sites in Marin. This includes 13 new food programs they have started with their partners to expand the safety net further. ExtraFood has made 11,000 deliveries and continues to regularly supply food to Marin County. Zauderer explains that every donation counts, even the smallest contribution can make a difference.

Another local organization working to take action against hunger in Marin is The Fairfax Food Pantry, co-founded by Holly Bragman. Bragman helped create The Fairfax Food Pantry in 2011 because she noticed that there was a need for this service in the Fairfax community: 25% of the participants of the San Geronimo Valley Community Center Food Pantry were from Fairfax. Bragman decided to open up the Food Pantry in Fairfax because transportation is often very difficult for people who are food insecure, and this new location would provide more central access to healthy nutritious foods. Located in the Fairfax Community Church, The Fairfax Food Pantry feeds over 130 families every week. According to Bragman, “the Pantry receives donations totaling 5,000 to 8,000 pounds of food per week.” These foods mainly include protein like meat, fresh veggies, fruit, and other staples for the everyday kitchen. If they have extra food at the end, they often give it to other locations or organizations like St. Vincent’s. Bragman’s vision is to act locally, helping the community through a system that includes Fairfax Volunteers, the Town of Fairfax, and the Fairfax Community Church to create an easy and accessible way for people to obtain healthy, fresh foods.

What can you do? You can support ExtraFood by committing to volunteer as a “food runner” and deliver healthy food to those in need. You can also help by encouraging other Marin businesses and organizations to donate their extra or leftover food. (For more information visit: ExtraFood.org) To support the Fairfax Food Pantry, you can donate money, sign up to volunteer, or something as simple as dropping off empty paper bags from 8:30-11:30 a.m. on Saturdays at the Fairfax Food Pantry. (For more information visit: FairfaxVolunteers.org)

Together we can help solve hunger in our local community by making small changes to our consumer behavior, and making a conscious effort to help those in need.

Youth Blog: Get informed about the Plastic Bag Ban Propositions!

November 6, 2016 by Jennifer Hammond

By Lexi Neely, Drake High School SEA-DISC student & Sustainable Fairfax Intern

We often hear about how Americans buy too many products we quickly dispose of or don’t really need. However, many overlook the wastefulness of the packaging and transport of the products we buy. The amount of single-use plastic bags we consume is no small issue; in fact, the United States goes through over 100 billion plastic bags annually.

Plastic bags put an enormous burden on our environment and our wildlife. We use 12 million barrels of oil every year to produce the number of bags we use in this country. Plastic bags are responsible for the death of over 100,000 sea creatures when these animals mistake them as food. On top of that, plastic doesn’t biodegrade, it only photodegrades, meaning it will break up into extremely small pieces resembling dust but it will still be harmful to the environment.

With this ominous and foreboding status of plastic bag use today, it seems like reducing or stopping their production and use is unsurmountable. When looking at this issue as a whole, it can seem overwhelming and hopeless. We must focus on how to change our plastic bag use at the individual, local, state and eventually national level. With the upcoming election this November 8th, I urge you to take a stand against the use of plastic bags and take a stand for our earth.

Two years ago in 2014, California passed the first statewide single-use plastic bag ban in the nation, following the lead of cities and towns all over the state (Sustainable Fairfax initiated one of the first successful plastic bag bans in the country here in Fairfax!). Plastic bag companies from all over the country were distressed that they would lose their biggest consumer of plastic bags. So they hastily challenged this law and placed Proposition 67 and 65 on the November 8th ballot in an effort to complicate, distract, and repeal the existing law.

Proposition 67 puts the California statewide single-use plastic bag ban before the voters, as the result of a referendum on the law sought by the American Progressive Bag Alliance, a coalition of plastic manufacturers. Proposition 67, if passed, would essentially eliminate the use of single-use plastic bags, as well as charge a 10¢ fee for any reusable or paper bag. Prop 67 would give the money collected from the 10¢ bag fee to the grocer. This way, the grocer could use the 10¢ to help abide with the new law requiring them to use more expensive reusable or paper bags.

According to Jessica Connolly, the Recycling Programs Coordinator for Marin Sanitary Service, reusable plastic bags are up to “five times more expensive” to make (a reusable plastic bag is defined as being able to carry 25 pounds across a football field 125 times!) For this reason, plastic bag companies are strongly opposed to the plastic bag ban, and spent $2.9M to oppose Proposition 67.

Proposition 65 is an initiative that was also placed on the ballot by the American Progressive Bag Alliance. If the plastic bag ban passes, this law would demand that the money collected from the 10¢ bag fee be directed into a California State environmental fund. What could be wrong with that? Not so fast. Many believe this poorly written law was put on the ballot by the plastic industry to confuse voters. Since the grocers would be required to give the money to the State, the plastic bag ban opponents could challenge the law by claiming that the bag fee is actually a tax. Tax measures need a 2/3 majority vote to pass, rather than the 50 percent simple majority needed for initiatives. If Prop 65 gets more votes than Prop 67, but doesn’t get 2/3 of the vote, it likely will be challenged and repealed in court, thereby eliminating any plastic bag ban.

For plastic bag ban proponents, the hope is that people will become accustomed to bringing their own reusable bags. According to Mark Squire, owner of Good Earth Natural Foods, they have never given out plastic bags at checkout and initiated a fee for paper bags years ago. He believes that the bag fee serves as an effective reminder for his environmentally conscious customers to bring their own bag when they can. Squire has seen a steady increase in the use of reusable bags, which is currently at about half and half.

In short, to ensure that single-use plastic bags are banned from our state, it is important to vote YES on Proposition 67. And vote NO on Proposition 65. I believe the plastic industry is misleading the public about what is best for the grocers, the environment, and the consumers and are only looking out for themselves. Help protect our earth, you have the power to make a difference!