When Orange Coast College announced on March 16 that its physical campus would be closed until further notice due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, faculty and staff working in the College’s culinary arts and food services programs were left wondering what they would do with more than 1,800 lbs of unused food that normally would be used for on-campus dining facilities and culinary arts instruction.
Luckily, Food Service Management instructor Alexandra Yates and a team of volunteers had the perfect solution already in place: The OCC Food Recovery Kitchen. Created more than a year ago as part of the College's Food Services program, the Recovery Kitchen initially was started with the goal of reducing food insecurity among OCC's student population. “Our main purpose is to lower our campus’s food waste and food insecurity among out students,” says Yates. “We partner with Pirate's Cove [food pantry] on campus, along with the support from the Culinary Arts Program, Cafeteria Services, Nutrition and Dietetics, Horticulture and other programs.”
Since mid-March, Yates and her team of volunteers have packaged more than 30,000 meals using more than 200,000 lbs of donated food to be distributed to local families in need, as well as Costa Mesa homeless shelters and assisted living facilities. When OCC's campus closed and classes transitioned online, the team moved to kitchen facilities at the Marconi Automotive Museum in Tustin, and when the Museum re-opened as part of California’s Phase 3 re-opening in June, the team moved to Katella Grill.
Yates also has teamed up with local food banks and nonprofits to distribute food to families in need all over Orange County, including the OC Food Bank and Goodwill of Orange County. “Our main partnerships have been with Waste Not OC, the OC Food Bank and The Marconi Automotive Museum. When Goodwill was closed their drivers helped the food bank out with deliveries,” says Yates.
The Waste Not OC Coalition works collaboratively with hospitals, food banks, municipalities, and local food and waste hauling industries to reduce hunger and food waste by safely and cost effectively recovering unwanted wholesome food for distribution to local pantries serving those in the community facing food insecurity. Yates serves on Waste Not’s advisory board and work closely with the organization.
“OC Food Bank is where we get about 90 percent of our recovered food. The other 10 percent comes directly from restaurants and farms,” she explains. “We currently hold multiple food distribution events every week, including on OCC's campus and in San Juan Capistrano, Garden Grove, Laguna Hills and Lake Forest.”
Another collaboration Yates has pursued has been with OCC’s Horticulture program, which has several greenhouses and planting beds full of fruits and vegetables that normally would be harvested by students. “[Horticulture faculty and staff] contacted me letting me know that there was a lot of produce that needed to be harvested or it would go to waste. I had previously been working with them because I am starting a new program on campus called 'sustainable food systems' and we will be using one of the garden plots in the community gardens,” Yates explains.
Yates and her team have even caught the attention of Hollywood, with producers of two different documentary producers reaching out to highlight her efforts. In late May a crew from Warner Bros. showed up at the Marconi Museum to film a segment for one of the documentaries, which is set to air in the coming months. “Both documentaries were already going to be filmed before COVID-19 happened, and the motivation for both is the same: they both focus on food waste, food insecurity, food recovery and how collaboration between our communities can change the world,” says Yates.