We've delivered 3,353,643 pounds of food to 122 sites in Marin, keeping 275,561 pounds of methane from warming our planet & reaching 8,000 people every month.

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Community Spotlight

• Food Donors
• Volunteers
• Recipients

Piatti Restaurant

Situated in a gorgeous location just off the freeway in Mill Valley, Piatti looks out over Richardson Bay with Mt Tam in the backdrop. Picturesque views and delicious Italian-inspired food, with an emphasis on local and seasonal, makes this a very popular destination. Piatti joined our Community Meals program in June of this year and has been donating prepared food every other week. Bradley House seniors are the lucky recipients and we are so fortunate to have a regular volunteer, Laurie, who has committed to picking up Piatti’s donations. Christina, the resource coordinator for Bradley House had this comment to add, “As an added bonus, the arrival of the Piatti’s donation has become a community event! Residents look forward to picking up a nutritious meal, seeing each other, sharing a kind word, and catching up on the day. The residents leave the community room with a smile on their face. This donation has helped us increase food access and decrease isolation with our Bradley House seniors.”

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Tom C.

Tom joined the ExtraFood volunteer team almost 3 years ago, in December 2016. He was inspired to help ExtraFood from an article that he saw in the local newspaper, and ever since has been committed to giving back and helping “locally” in his own community. Tom recently hit the 100 trip milestone, now having taken 110 trips and recovering over 7300 pounds of food! Tom has several trips that he likes to do regularly, but also jumps in when he sees a need - doing several trips per week!

He most often goes to Arizmendi, Woodlands Markets and helps at our Byte food distribution and recovers food for St. Stephens Church, People’s Inter-Cities and the Redwoods. He recently volunteered in the ExtraFood booth at Whole Foods Mill Valley to help increase awareness of ExtraFood’s mission to end hunger and food waste in Marin.

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Buckalew Programs-Marin Assisted Independent Living (MAIL)

Marin Assisted Independent Living (MAIL): A Buckelew Program

Buckelew Programs’ mission is to promote recovery, resilience and hope by providing behavioral health and support services to people with mental health, addiction and related behavioral health challenges. Buckelew’s MAIL program helps clients with behavioral health challenges live independently in the community, either individually or in collective households.

Last week we delivered a spontaneous catered food donation to a group household in the MAIL program. They were delighted to receive their first donation- a bounty of small spinach and meat pies. A perfect match for their residents who don’t cook much and prefer to just heat up their food!

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What Our Partners Are Saying About ExtraFood.org

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

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

• "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

• "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

• "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

• "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

• "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

• “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

• "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

• “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

• "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

• “[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

• "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

• "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

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

  — Volunteer Miller R., age 15

• "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

• "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

• "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

• "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

• “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