SUPPORT EXTRAFOOD’S EFFORTS IN RESPONSE TO COVID-19

ExtraFood continues to rescue excess fresh food and deliver freshly-prepared meals for the people most in need in Marin County during this crisis.

Thank you for supporting our work to bring food to our community's most vulnerable people 365 days a year.

We've delivered 4,283,681 pounds of food to 130 sites in Marin, keeping 346,381 pounds of methane from warming our planet & reaching 8,000 people every month.

You can help. We make it easy!

Community Spotlight

• Food Donors
• Volunteers
• Recipients

Insalata’s

From its inception, ExtraFood has lived by the words of restaurateur and Founding Board Member Heidi Krahling: “Food is only food until it’s shared.” Heidi, her husband Mark, and the entire team at Insalata’s in San Anselmo have made an enormous difference through ExtraFood’s Community Meals program during the pandemic, making more than 10,000 meals for ExtraFood to give to the most vulnerable people in our community.

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Karen G.

Karen has been a loyal volunteer with ExtraFood since March 2019, and has completed 55 food trips recovering over 5500 pounds of food! Karen is a regular volunteer that owns a trip from Safeway Terra Linda every Friday. She is an amazing ambassador for ExtraFood as she has created a very strong relationship with the Safeway Terra Linda team. The receiving team all know Karen and look forward to her visits because she knows exactly what to do at their store. She even gave the team her cell phone number in case a large donation pops up that she can assist with!

Karen is always willing to help and gets involved in other areas with ExtraFood in addition to her regular trip. She was one of our “models” from our Extra Food photo shoot this summer and she joined us on our first “volunteer field trip” to New Beginnings last March. Karen delivers food to St. Vincents and Martinelli House and they are most grateful for her kindness and positive attitude. She has made a significant impact on these communities with her commitment to ensuring their needs are met. Thank you Karen, for your loyalty and dedication to ExtraFood and to those you have served in your community!

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Community Action Marin

ExtraFood launched its partnership with this experienced and influential organization three years ago. Working with Chef José, who oversees the kitchen where meals for CAM’s child development programs, including Head Start, are prepared each day, we supply CAM with meal ingredients (fresh produce, eggs, healthy baked goods, and proteins including dairy products) appropriate for young children each week.

Before the pandemic, the kitchen prepared breakfast, lunch, and snacks for over 950 children in more than thirty classrooms who participated in CAM’s free and affordable child development programs. In response to COVID-19, the Central Kitchen closed down operations in March, but quickly reopened three days later to provide food to essential medical personnel. They did this by creating a drive-through, grab-and-go food pantry at Old Gallinas School in San Rafael. Shortly thereafter, the kitchen began to ramp up their cooking to prepare breakfast, lunch and snacks for many of their families who were no longer able to access food through the daily CAM programs—- as many as 150 families per day. ExtraFood provided some highly coveted food during this time: One day we delivered roast beef, which Chef José cut into portions to be distributed to the families. It was a huge hit! CAM would text their families photos of the food that ExtraFood provided, and those who wanted the food could immediately come and receive it. Such efficiency!

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What Our Partners Are Saying About ExtraFood.org

• "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

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

  — Volunteer Miller R., age 15

• “[Because of ExtraFood's deliveries] I’m finding myself eating a more nutritious diet and a diet that has more variety to it, anything from salads to complete dinner meals that appear to be custom made....What I found is as people get older, they tend not to prepare healthy foods for themselves because it is an extra effort. Some of the more complex meals we receive from ExtraFood…instead of just eating a sandwich, people are receiving full meals that are very tasty and made from scratch. All the individuals who I know who receive ExtraFood look forward to it because it tastes so good and has nutrition. It’s high-end food which makes people feel they are receiving something of quality."

  — Michael Harris, 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

• “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

• "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

• "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

• "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

• “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

• "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

• "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

• “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

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

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

• “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

• "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

• "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

• "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

• "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

• "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

• "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