Our Impact In Marin

2020 was an extraordinary year for our community and for ExtraFood:

• Through our county-wide food recovery program, we rescued 845,000 pounds of excess fresh food from Marin's businesses and schools for people in need;
• That work prevented 70,000 pounds of methane from warming our planet -- equivalent to eliminating the emissions from 2,000,000 miles driven;
• Through our Community Meals program, we used the excess capacity of restaurants and caterers to give more than 80,000 freshly-made meals to people hit hardest by the crisis.

Since we launched our free service 7 years ago, ExtraFood.org has made a significant impact in Marin County, from Point Reyes Station to McNear's Beach to Novato to Marin City, and everywhere in between:

• We have organized, recovered, and delivered more than 4,905,063 pounds of food from 275 donors to 141 safety net partner sites serving thousands of Marin's most vulnerable children, adults, and families. We've made more than 55,000 deliveries of healthy, fresh food.
• The food includes enormous quantities of such in-demand items as fresh fruits and vegetables; proteins in prepared food, dairy products, eggs, and meat; and much more.
• We have started 41 new food programs with our partners, expanding the safety net in our county.
• Through our Community Meals program, we're using the excess capacity of restaurants and caterers to give meals to people in need -- more than 90,000 freshly-made meals during the COVID-19 crisis -- and also helping to keep food businesses afloat and food-service workers employed;
• We reach more than 8,000 vulnerable people each month with our food deliveries.
• Because of our deliveries, our recipient partners serve more than 1,500 people that they otherwise would not be able to serve.

We are helping solve the problem of hunger in Marin by helping Marin's nonprofit food programs be more effective in our shared work to get more healthy food to more people who are struggling with hunger. We are addressing inequities and need by redistributing some of the highest-quality food in the world.

And, we are acting on the environmental aspect of our mission by reducing the massive impact of food waste on climate change:

• If global food waste were a country, it would rank third in greenhouse gas emissions after the U.S. and China.
• By keeping excess food out of the landfill, ExtraFood's work has prevented more than 396,356 pounds of methane from entering the atmosphere and warming our planet -- equivalent to eliminating the GHG emissions from 11 million miles driven. 

In sum, ExtraFood is solving hunger differently:

• Leading a movement to change our food system: Changing businesses’ and schools behavior from wasting food to donating it;
• Sharing the resources of our community with our community: High-quality fresh food and 700+ volunteers thus far; and
• Mobilizing a county-wide coalition to expand a nimble, renewable, long-term food recovery ecosystem and Community Meals program for our county.

Because if they have the food they need, children can learn, seniors can age in place with dignity, and adults can find jobs to lift themselves out of poverty.

We do all of this with a highly efficient organization: in 2020, 91% of our expenditures were devoted to program delivery. 

Click here to see us in action.

Click here to see stories about our impact in Marin.