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DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted not only how we work and where we go, but how our food is collected, made, and distributed to us. One local organization, ProduceGood, has stepped up to pick and distribute fresh produce from local farms, backyard fruit trees, and even local businesses, to feed the food insecure and hungry throughout Oceanside. Since 2014, ProduceGood has been sourcing and harvesting excess fruits and vegetables in the county from local farms, farmers markets, and off edible fruit trees, and supplying local feeding agencies, food pantries and community partners with that food. To date, ProduceGood has diverted over 606,800 pounds of produce, creating over 1,820,292 servings of produce for the San Diego Community. During their 2019 fiscal year, ProduceGood rescued 314,000 pounds of produce, which equates to over 942,000 servings of fresh produce to communities in
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need, and earned the Reducing Food Waste Initiative Award by the US EPA. The City of Oceanside began to partner with ProduceGood in 2018, with a goal of protecting the environment by rescuing food that would otherwise be thrown away and providing otherwise perfectly delicious produce to Oceanside residents and the food insecure. Through the City’s partnered “Harvest Oceanside” events, ProduceGood has collected close to 12,000 pounds of fresh produce from both Oceanside agricultural surplus and from backyard fruit trees. In just two events, this has equated to almost 36,000 fresh fruit serving to local food insecure populations. Once COVID-19 hit our community, ProduceGood quickly adapted to focus their operations to maximizing their food recovery and transportation operations in support of local food banks and
Summer 2020 | www.oceansidechamber.com
