Event Recap | Save the Food Fest!

Last month, we partnered up with Kitchens For Good, Sustainability is Sexy, and local educators, chefs, and food business owners for the first ever Save the Food Fest! Thanks to all who joined us to celebrate Earth Month and San Diego County's movement to end food waste.

Thanks to ProduceGood for sharing these beautiful photos, taken by Tomoko Matsubayashi!

On Saturday, April 29, our community celebrated the movement to end food waste with a festival: the first ever Save the Food Fest!

Globally, April is an important time for spreading wasted food prevention awareness—Earth Day is on April 22, and Stop Food Waste Day is on April 27—so our Save the Food, San Diego! team decided to partner up with Kitchens For Good and Sustainability is Sexy for the last weekend of the month to amplify the message.

Environmental educators, chefs, and local food business owners gathered in the Kitchens For Good SHOP parking lot in Pacific Beach for a day of creativity and connection with San Diego County residents passionate about ending food waste.

Organizations such as Food 2 Soil, Healthy Day Partners, ProduceGood, I Love a Clean San Diego, and the City of San Diego all came together to set up informational booths, donation stations, and planting corners.

Local legends SoulMuch showed up with their famous cookies, made of ingredients sourced by rescuing excess grains from restaurants and food businesses that would otherwise be landfilled. In the words of SoulMuch, we were all reminded that “waste is only waste if someone wastes it.”

Chef Liz of Santosha Nutrition and co-founder of Sustainability is Sexy, Chef Mike with One Kitchen Collaborative, Chef Kujo, Chef Gem, and Chef Amanda from Kitchens for Good all whipped up brilliantly delicious treats using zero-waste recipes. The menu for the day was brilliantly mindfully crafted, displaying root-to-stem dishes such as Beet Carpaccio with Beet Stem Vinaigrette, Beet Top Pesto, and Almond Ricotta (oh dang!), Chickpea Tuna, Sriracha Aioli Cucumber Bites, and Vegan Caviar, to name a few.

Local boutique refinery Kismet Refining concocted a divine drink: fermented hibiscus sugar-rimmed Arnold Palmer, made from their very own hibiscus vinegar, orange bitters, black tea, and lemonade, served in Amai edible cups. We mentioned the brilliantly delicious part, right? 

Save the Food Fest was a memorable day from start to finish, root to stem, head to tail. When local businesses and organizations are genuinely thrilled to spend their weekends together, rally around issues that affect our communities, and invite residents to learn and participate, it’s a testament to the deep collaborative spirit that exists in our region—especially in the movement to transform our food system and end food waste.

An enormous thanks to our sponsors, Jimbo’s Naturally, Pick On Us, and Amai for supporting Save the Food Fest in its first year. Gratitude to DJ Permanent Starlight for creating a fun, block party vibe.

And of course, thank you to all who brought the event to life and the hundreds of San Diegans who stopped by!