At the Blog | June 27, 2025
Tackling Wasted Food Through Innovative Policy Adaptation
By Robin Franz Martin
Since 2017, Joint Venture’s Food Recovery Initiative has strengthened Santa Clara County’s food recovery ecosystem by coordinating local partners, managing the countywide food recovery program, and helping organizations safely redirect surplus food to those in need. Through data-driven analysis and strategic collaboration, the initiative reduces food waste while strengthening food security.
In May 2025 Robin Franz Martin, Executive Director of Joint Venture’s Food Recovery Initiative, joined panelists at WasteExpo in Las Vegas to highlight policy solutions for organic waste diversion.
Other panelists included Nina Sevilla, Sustainable Food Systems Program Advocate, Natural Resources Defense Council, in Washington, D.C. (moderator); Jenny Kedward, Food Waste Prevention Specialist, Hennepin County, Minnesota; and Holly Stirnkorb, Principal Planner at Metro in Portland, Oregon.
The following Q&A is condensed from her remarks.
Q: Can you provide an overview of the food recovery components of SB 1383 and how Joint Venture has responded?
SB 1383 is a sweeping statewide organics law in California that includes mandatory collection of organic waste from nearly every consumer, as well as a strong food recovery component. It sets a goal of recovering 20% of surplus edible food for human consumption by 2025. Certain businesses are required to donate the maximum amount of edible surplus food, a phrase California included in the legislation after learning from previous iterations of similar laws in other parts of the world. That phrase has proven powerful for enforcement and impact.
This mandate applies to large food generators like grocery stores, hotels, schools, wholesalers, distributors, large restaurants, and healthcare facilities. It’s a huge lift. Rather than letting all surplus end up in landfills, these businesses are now required to ensure that all of their edible surplus food is recovered and redistributed.
At the local level in Santa Clara County — home to San Jose and Silicon Valley — Joint Venture created annual reporting requirements for both the businesses and the food recovery organizations they work with. That’s allowed us to more thoroughly track progress and understand what’s working, which is invaluable for ongoing policy refinement.
Q: What’s one major challenge you’ve encountered in implementing these food recovery policies, and how did you overcome it?
When I think of challenges, there are the expected and unexpected. The expected is the lack of funding for food recovery. State law does not include a mechanism for funding organizations to recover surplus food, so determining how to fund this endeavor is a constant point of conversation across the state. Should the government pay? Should the businesses? Would fee-for-service models yield the best results?
Across the state, an unexpected challenge has been identifying which businesses are actually subject to the law. This has been time-consuming for each jurisdiction. For example, restaurants larger than 5,000 square feet or with more than 250 seats need to comply. There are no listings of square footage or number of seats, so both of these variables need to be determined for thousands of locations. Through tax estimates, number of employees, and other indirect means, we can make a rough estimate, but then each location needs multiple phone calls or visits to determine the need to comply. The restaurant owners themselves often don’t know the number of square feet. The state offered some guidance, and we had to develop tools for figuring out which operations meet the criteria for compliance.
Q: As more localities look at organic waste bans, what’s the most important thing they should consider in advance?
I think it's important to study models already in place. For example, California's approach defines eligible businesses by type — grocery, hotel, etc. By contrast, New York’s law defines compliance by waste volume: currently two tons of organics per week, reducing to 0.5 tons by 2028.
Interestingly, New York exempts hospitals, nursing homes, and schools — something California doesn’t do. So when designing a policy, understanding those thresholds and exemptions helps build something effective and equitable.
Q: You’ve talked about the complexity of aligning state and local policies. Can you elaborate?
Absolutely. State legislation is just the beginning. After a law passes, a state agency develops rules, regulations, and guidance. These things can sometimes be completed in-house, or by contractors, and some with input from local governments. Then local governments have to adopt ordinances and create their own implementation systems. In Santa Clara County, we had all 16 jurisdictions sign a single MOU so we could operate a unified, countywide program. That coordination was essential, but it took a lot of effort.
The way all these puzzle pieces come together — or don’t — can determine whether a policy has real impact or just sits on paper. I’m so curious about the interplay between statewide vision and local capacity and implementation — how can the intent of the law be maintained through all these steps so that the implementation has teeth?
About the Author
Robin Franz Martin joined Joint Venture’s Food Recovery Initiative in 2017, bringing two decades of experience in public health and community collaboration. She founded the Silicon Valley Food Recovery Council and led the creation of the countywide Santa Clara County Food Recovery Program, in addition to leading and authoring numerous pilot projects and reports on food recovery. Robin also serves on the boards of the Santa Clara County Food System Alliance and the Edible Food Recovery Technical Council of the California Resource Recovery Association.
