English Assignment: Neutral report/overview of the Issues/Debate
e201611
Apublic-privatepartnershiptomitigatefoodinse.pdf
January 2017, Vol 107, No.1 AJPH Garcia-Silva et al. Research 105
AJPH PRACTICE
The Waste Not Or-ange County Coalition (WNOC) was established by
the Orange County, California,
Health Department and
the Orange County Food
Bank in 2012. WNOC has 1
main objective—to educate
businesses about donations of
excess food—and 2 second-
ary objectives—to identify
food-insecure individuals and
to connect them to food
pantries. To fulfi ll its goal of
recovering excess food, the
coalition partnered with Food
Finders,1 a nonprofi t organiza-
tion that picks up excess food
from hospitals, restaurants, and
supermarkets, and distributes it
to food pantries.
Food Finders has worked
in the community for 30 years
and serves as the main food
recovery organization for
WNOC. WNOC is made
up of restaurants, food banks,
county departments (e.g., the
health department and social
services), Food Finders, 211
Orange County (a nationwide
social service hotline2), hospi-
tals, supermarkets, schools, and
Orange County United Way, to
name a few.
A graduate student who
conducted a survey in 1 city
in Orange County identifi ed
liability concerns as one of the
top barriers to donating food
among businesses.3 Building
on a preliminary survey con-
ducted with a small number
of food businesses in Orange
County, the health department
administered a telephone
survey in 2014 to about 100
food businesses and found that
the most commonly perceived
barriers to food donations
were liability concerns and
the false notion that the health
department would not allow
A Public–Private Partnership to Mitigate Food Insecurity and Food Waste in Orange County, California Bernadet Garcia-Silva, MPH, Eric Handler, MD, MPH, FAAP, and Julia Wolfe, MPH
food donations. These fi ndings,
paired with feedback from about
30 stakeholders in the coalition,
provided the basis for WNOC’s
educational outreach.
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH INSPECTOR OUTREACH
Substantial outreach eff orts
are needed to educate the
business community about
opportunities to donate excess
food and inform them of
local resources. Orange County
employs about 50 environ-
mental health specialists who
conduct food safety inspections
and grade 15 000 food facilities
throughout Orange County
2 to 3 times a year; this makes
the county health department’s
Environmental Health Division4
a crucial ally in executing a food
recovery initiative.
One county supervisor
attended a coalition meeting
and recognized the potential
infl uence these inspectors can
have on the food industry with
regard to liability education on
food donations. As a result,
in May 2016, the Orange
County Board of Supervisors
ABOUT THE AUTHORS At the time of writing, Bernadet Garcia-Silva was with the Waste Not Orange County Coalition,
Orange County Health Care Agency, Santa Ana, CA. Eric Handler is with the Orange County
Health Care Agency. Julia Wolfe is with the Orange County Public Health Laboratory, Orange
County Health Care Agency.
Correspondence should be sent to Bernadet Garcia-Silva, MPH, County of Los Angeles
Department of Public Health, Environmental Health, 5050 Commerce Dr., Baldwin Park, CA
91706 (e-mail: [email protected]). Reprints can be ordered at http://www.ajph.org by
clicking the “Reprints” link.
This article was accepted August 21, 2016.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2016.303450
Food insecurity is a global issue that arises owing to systemic socioeconomic inequities and
environmental constraints. To highlight the existence and the extent of food insecurity and food
waste, the Orange County Health Department in Orange County, California, created a coalition
called “Waste Not Orange County.” Orange County is the sixth most populous county in California
and has the highest median income, yet 11.4% of those residing in Orange County are food insecure,
and 24.0% live in poverty. The overall vision of the coalition is to mitigate hunger in Orange County
by educating the community about food donations, identifying food-insecure individuals, and
connecting those individuals to sources of food. We examine the coalition’s impacts between 2014
and 2016. (Am J Public Health. 2017;107:105–107. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2016.303450)
directed the environmental
health inspectors to distribute a
fl yer promoting food donations
countywide.5
These inspectors are the fi rst
point of contact for promoting
food donations and educating
the business community to
donate food without fear of
liability. In addition to liability
information, inspectors can
explain the benefi ts of donating
excess edible food and debunk
the myth that expiration dates
are indicators of safety and
cannot be donated (with the
exception of infant formula6).
Without the support from the
Orange County Environmental
Health Division, WNOC would
have been met with limited
credibility. This health inspection
protocol has been a simple
solution for educating businesses
about donating food, ensuring
the sustainability of WNOC’s
outreach.
APPEALING TO THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY
In addition to health
inspectors, a group of leaders
in the food industry willing to
help identify opportunities to
educate the public about food
recovery is necessary to build
credibility among businesses. To
ensure business participation, a
subcommittee of volunteers
was created to bridge the educa-
tion gap between the health
department and food-producing
facilities regarding food dona-
tions and to market the idea
of WNOC to the business
community.
One of the subcommittee’s
most notable ideas involved
incentivizing food donations
by awarding window seals to
participating businesses. These
window seals are followed up
with a photograph in front
of the facility, which is shared
in WNOC’s social media as
a means to encourage other
businesses to follow suit.
FOOD INSECURITY SCREENING IN MEDICAL OFFICES
WNOC advocates food
insecurity screening in primary
care settings as well as food
donations. One in 8 people
living in Orange County is
at risk for food insecurity, yet
screening individuals at risk
for food insecurity is seldom
standard medical practice. The
Children’s Hospital of Orange
County (CHOC) and Orange
County’s Family Resource
Centers (FRCs), a subdivision
of the Orange County Social
Services Agency, have worked
with WNOC to incorporate a
food insecurity screening tool7
into their patient intake system.
Once people are identifi ed
as food insecure, they can use
WNOC’s interactive Google
Map pantry directory8 to
fi nd the pantries nearest their
residence. In both CHOC and
the FRCs, 35 000 individuals
were screened and 1400 (4.0%)
were given pantry information
as of February 2016. The 4.0%
identifi ed represent only a
portion of the individuals who
have used CHOC and the
FRCs in that period and thus
do not refl ect the entire 11.4%
of those who are food insecure
countywide.
Furthermore, the referrals
did not discriminate between
residents of Orange County and
out-of-county residents who
may have used CHOC and the
FRCs. Future evaluation eff orts
could include a follow-up survey
of those referred to pantries by
physicians or social workers to
determine how frequently they
used the pantries and their place
of residence.
OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS • WNOC has recovered 280
tons of food, equating to approx-
imately 466 637 meals between
July 2014 and May 2016 (1.2
pounds of food equates to about
1 full meal).
• WNOC accrued 50 donors
between July 2014 and February
2016 in the cities of Anaheim
and Orange;
• A new supermarket chain
donor was added in November
2015 that made an initial
donation of 58 000 meals and
averages 10 800 meals a month
comprising excess edible food.
• Twenty-fi ve pantries have
signed on as recipient agencies
for recovered food between
July 2014 and July 2015. New
recipient agencies have been
added every quarter owing to
WNOC’s expansion and Food
Finders’ reach into greater
Orange County.
WNOC has identifi ed some
key existing challenges to food
donations and steps to address
these: in particular, concerns
about the integrity of the food
once it leaves the donors’ control
and getting school districts to
donate excess food. The Good
Samaritan Act of 1996 protects
food donors from liability if
they donate food to a 501c3
organization “in good faith,”9 yet
donors still express concern over
their branding should a recipient
fall ill.
To ameliorate this
concern, Orange County’s
Environmental Health Division
is developing training for
food rescue volunteers titled
“FRESH: Food Rescue
Enhanced Safe Handling.” The
hope is that food recovery
volunteers can learn basic safe
food donation processes and
undergo FRESH training, thus
alleviating donors’ concerns
about the integrity of how
AJPH PRACTICE
AJPH January 2017, Vol 107, No. 1106 Research Garcia-Silva et al.
the food is being handled
postdonation. Resistance to
implementing food donations
in school districts is not
uncommon, and school districts
are more likely to donate when
given examples of successful
food recovery operations in
other districts.
One challenge remains:
physicians are in a prime
position to address food
insecurity, yet even when given
the tools to address hunger
in their offi ces, concerns over
stigma and time constraints for
“asking the question” persist.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS WNOC strives to expand its
partnership circle beyond the
cities of Anaheim and Orange by
adding more cities to its network.
It is our hope that additional
strategic partnerships will pave
the way for increased, consistent
food donations to pantries to
feed people in need.
CONTRIBUTORS
B. Garcia-Silva wrote the fi rst
draft and subsequent revisions
of the report. E. Handler led the
overall direction of the coalition
and reviewed drafts of the report.
J. Wolfe reviewed initial drafts of
the report and provided research
support.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank our funders for their
generous support, specifi cally
Orange County United Way, the
Orange County Health Care
Agency, and the Orange County
Board of Supervisors.
REFERENCES 1. Food Finders Staff. Food Finders—
rescuing food, ending hunger. 2016.
Available at: http://www.foodfinders.
org. Accessed June 1, 2016.
2. United Way Worldwide. 2-1-1.
2016. Available at: http://www.211.org.
Accessed June 1, 2016.
3. Sharaf K. Food Waste and the Overall
Sentiment Towards Participation in Food
Recovery Programs Among Distributors
Within the City of Stanton, California
[MPH thesis]. Irvine, CA: University of
California; 2014.
4. Orange County Health Care Agency
Staff. Orange County Health Care
Agency: environmental health. 2016.
Available at: http://ochealthinfo.com/
eh. Accessed June 1, 2016.
5. County of Orange, California.
HCA distribution of information
to food facilities regarding food
donations. 2016. Available at: http://
cams.ocgov.com/Web_Publisher_Sam/
Agenda05_10_2016_files/images/A16-
000631.HTM. Accessed September 18,
2016.
6. US Food and Drug Administration.
Did you know that a store can sell food
past the expiration date? 2016. Available
at: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/
Transparency/Basics/ucm210073.htm.
Accessed June 1, 2016.
7. Hager ER, Quigg AM, Black MM,
et al. Development and validity of a
2-item screen to identify families at risk
for food insecurity. Pediatrics. 2010;126(1):
e26–e32.
8. Waste Not Orange County Coalition.
Food pantries in Orange County, CA.
2016. Available at: http://www.waste-
notoc.org/#!providing-food-resources/
c22p0. Accessed June 1, 2016.
9. The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan
Act of 1996. Pub. L. 104–210, 110
STAT. 3011 (Oct. 1, 1996). Available at:
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-
104publ210/pdf/PLAW-104publ210.pdf.
Accessed September 18, 2016.
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January 2017, Vol 107, No.1 AJPH Garcia-Silva et al. Research 107
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