Food Waste in California
Californians send 11.2 billion pounds of food to landfills each year, some of which was still fresh enough to have been recovered to feed people in need. While billions of meals go to waste, millions of Californians don’t have enough to eat.
These households often must choose between eating and basic needs like housing or medical bills.
In 2018, 4.3 million Californians (10.8% of California’s population) didn’t have enough to eat. By May 2020, that number had doubled, surging to 9.2 million Californians (23% of California’s population) who didn’t know where their next meal would come from during the COVID-19 economic crisis, according to the COVID Impact Survey.
To reduce food waste and address food insecurity, surplus food still safe for people to eat will instead go to food banks, soup kitchens, and other food recovery organizations and services to help feed Californians in need.
This will save landfill space and lower methane emissions, a climate super pollutants, emitted by organic waste in landfills.
