We've delivered 2,884,738 pounds of food to 121 sites in Marin, keeping 237,105 pounds of methane from warming our planet & reaching 8,000 people every month.

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Community Spotlight

• Food Donors
• Volunteers
• Recipients

Agricultural Institute of Marin (AIM)

This week marks ExtraFood’s 5^thanniversary working in partnership with the AIM Thursday and Sunday Farmers Markets to deliver arguably the nation’s best produce and freshly baked bread from local farmers to community members in need across Marin. For 35 years, AIM has been passionately educating the public about the health, environmental, and economic benefits of buying locally grown food directly from farmers, while connecting and supporting communities and local and regional food systems so the public can access healthy and sustainably-grown food. We are so grateful to AIM and the dozens of farmers and market vendors who generously donate food every week to support vulnerable children, seniors, families, and individuals who would otherwise go hungry.

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Janet G.-R.

A volunteer food runner with ExtraFood since 2017, Janet’s found her groove in helping to distribute our big – and very highly-coveted – prepared food donations from Byte Foods. Whenever time allows, Janet swoops in and nabs a Byte delivery (or two or three!) for us. She joined ExtraFood as a way to give people in need access to good food while helping to reduce food waste and the environment at the same time. Since then, she has completed nearly 50 food trips, making a significant impact on hundreds of people’s lives. We are so happy to have Janet on our team!

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Maria B. Freitas Senior Community

With 62 affordable low-income housing apartments, Mercy Housing’s Maria B. Freitas Senior Community supports their senior residents with the resources they need to be good neighbors and members of a greater community. Resident Services Manager, Alejandra, takes pride in looking out for the needs of the senior residents at Maria B. Freitas and is a delight to work with. We are honored to have been supporting the seniors of Maria B. Freitas with fresh, healthy food from food donors such as Whole Foods in San Rafael and Byte Foods for nearly 3 years.

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What Our Partners Are Saying About ExtraFood.org

• “You are not just delivering food. You are helping to rebuild a small community -- helping people heal, not just in body, but in spirit.”

  — Gerrie Kunin, Homestead Terrace

• “Donating food helps breathe life into the community, and ExtraFood makes it easy for us. I don’t have to deal with the guilt of throwing things away that people really need.”

  — Eddie Reduta, Dairy Manager, Nugget Markets - Corte Madera

• “ExtraFood is a key partner in our business. They help streamline our operations by making the donating process easy.”

  — Megan Mokri, Co-Founder, Byte Foods - San Rafael

• "ExtraFood.org has helped us achieve our mission of feeding people instead of waste bins in Marin County. Their support makes it easy to save our excess, wholesome food from going to waste and we couldn't be more grateful for their partnership."

  — Claire Cummings, Waste Programs Manager, Bon Appétit Management Company

• "At the College of Marin, we know that it takes more than books and classes to succeed in college. It is estimated that a third of our students are food-insecure, and we have homeless students taking PE classes to use the showers. We have come to realize that basic needs take a major toll on our students and can inhibit their ability to learn. We started a “pop-up food pantry” in December 2016 with ExtraFood to address some of those needs on campus. ExtraFood provides fresh, high-quality produce and baked goods rescued from Marin County grocery stores, and students take what they need — no questions asked. This is literally a lifeline for some of our most vulnerable students. We could not be more proud to be part of the ExtraFood network!"

  — Anna Pilloton, Director of School and Community Partnerships, College of Marin - Kentfield

• "The farmers at the Marin Civic Center farmers market are so grateful to ExtraFood.org for giving them a simple way to get their healthful, excess produce to those in need."

  — Brigitte Moran, former CEO, Agricultural Institute of Marin - San Rafael

• "It’s a great complement to a food bank in any location to have a group [ExtraFood.org] that picks up things that aren’t cost-effective for us to pick up. When somebody calls us and says they have some oranges, we ask where to send the tractor-trailer." (Marin Independent-Journal, 7/3/14)

  — Paul Ash, Executive Director, SF-Marin Food Bank

• "Thank you ExtraFood.org volunteers. The food you are bringing us feeds seniors and young families in West Marin from Muir Beach, into the San Geronimo Valley and up to the Sonoma County line. West Marin is an affordable food desert surrounded by farms producing the best of Marin's food and the most needy are often forgotten. Thank you for including these seniors and families in the bounty Marin's food culture offers."

  — Chloe Cook, San Geronimo Community Presbyterian Church and ex-West Marin Senior Services

• "Every Thursday, ExtraFood delivers high quality fruits and vegetables from the Marin County Farmers Market to St. Vincent de Paul’s Dining Room in San Rafael. While most of this produce is used in the meals we prepare daily (approximately 200 lunches daily), we often have excess fruits and vegetables that we put on our Dining Room shelves for our patrons to take as needed. As fresh fruits and vegetables are essential to a healthy diet, the weekly Farmers Market provides beneficial nutrients to these most vulnerable clients.”

  — Vicki Masseria, Director of Finance and Operations, St. Vincent de Paul Society - San Rafael

• "The school lunches from ExtraFood have been very helpful in providing some great fresh food for our homeless clients. For someone who has nothing to eat for dinner or lunch to receive a simple meal at the end of the day is a small but very meaningful moment."

  — Shaun Marshall, Manager, Facilities & Client Services, Ritter Center

• "When I started working for Novato Unified School District in 2002 there was no locally-grown produce being offered to the students in our schools. That's an injustice. Today, we offer plenty of locally-grown produce to our kids, but not all the food is used. We had been throwing away perfectly good, healthful food at the end of the day – produce and prepared food – instead of providing it to families in the community who could benefit from it. That's an injustice. Thanks to our local farmers and ExtraFood.org, both of these injustices have been resolved in our efforts to improve the culture of wellness in our schools and community."

  — Miguel Villarreal, Director of Food and Nutritional Services, Novato USD

• “You have blessed us beyond measure and have transformed the experience for our food pantry clients.”

  — Yaker K., Food Pantry Coordinator, St. Andrew Presbyterian Church - Marin City

• “I like volunteering for ExtraFood because you can see who you’re helping.”
  

  — Volunteer Miller R., age 15

• "Thank you so much. This is so critically helpful! Your impressively organized and mission-driven system is key to the wellbeing of all people in the community who struggle with food security."

  — Mary Kay Sweeney, Executive Director, Homeward Bound of Marin - Novato

• "Thank you God are the first words I speak each time that I am blessed with the bounty and abundance of food every Monday from the very generous donors, ExtraFood and Marin General Hospital. It’s a blessing, a really true blessing. I give back by distributing this bounty to my neighbors and friends at Warner Creek. Each one is so happy when I make the delivery. They thank me profusely as though I am providing this. Thank you again and again from my friends and me at Warner Creek.”

  — Zipporah, Resident, Warner Creek Senior Housing - Novato

• "We are proud to support the important work that ExtraFood.org does for our Marin community. They make it so easy for us to donate our extra food to those in need. ExtraFood is a heroic partner allowing our community to put our values into action. No person should go hungry."

  — Moji Javid, Director of Synagogue Engagement, Congregation Rodef Sholom

• "Putting focus on diverting waste saves us money through cutting back on having waste hauled away."

  — Kanoa Aipia, Store Director, Nugget Markets - Corte Madera

• "Beyond the wonderful food that you provide, my children are encouraged by the fact that somewhere out in the world there are people who want to ensure they have fresh, healthy food. This feeling of being cared for is so powerful and I thank you so much for all that you do."

  — Sally Matsuishi, Next Generation Scholars - San Rafael

• “Kids come [to the church's pantry supplied by ExtraFood] when their parents aren’t home and they don’t have food in the house. People with babies who live on food stamps come for milk. Seniors who need food at the end of the month when their government benefit checks run out come for a bag of groceries.”

  — Leticia Jones, People's Inter-Cities Fellowship - Marin City

• "My team and I are thrilled at the opportunity to help our community. If it were not for the team at ExtraFood.org, I'm not sure how we would be able to donate food in this volume and manner. This is a great partnership among businesses, volunteers, and organizations to help feed the vulnerable residents of Marin County and reduce the amount of wasted food items that end up in landfills."

  — Mike Montross, Director of Nutrition Services, Marin General Hospital