New Beginnings for our Wasted Food Prevention Program Director, Geertje
We have a bittersweet announcement to make today: After four years with the San Diego Food System Alliance, our Wasted Food Prevention Program Director, Geertje Grootenhuis, is finishing up her final days with our team. This fall, she’ll be pursuing a Master’s degree in Environment and Resource Management at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Under Geertje’s leadership, the Alliance has been able to lean into a truly special role: serving as a network weaver and consultant to the many residents, food business owners, policymakers, activists and nonprofit leaders in San Diego County passionate about ending food waste. With Geertje at the helm, we’ve been able to participate in this dynamic and creative movement, and play a part in uniting our region under one vision for a more sustainable, equitable, and waste-free food system.
If you know Geertje—or have seen her presenting at a conference, leading a focus group, visiting a site, or tabling at an event—you’ll know that she’s a leader: a compassionate, well-spoken, visionary, and humble individual. Geertje, you will be missed!
We wanted to take this opportunity to thank Geertje for her enormous contributions to the Alliance and to the region of San Diego County, wish her the best, and share some of her parting thoughts.
SDFSA: Looking back at the last four years of the Wasted Food Prevention Program, what are some of your proudest moments?
G: Smart Kitchens San Diego—our technical assistance program that provided fifteen of San Diego County’s largest institutions with subsidized technology and support for preventing food waste in their kitchens, and connected them with food recovery efforts in their communities—has always been near and dear to my heart.
Piloting this program, we were able to work on the ground directly with chefs. Entering commercial kitchens at these institutions, cultivating relationships with their teams, and observing their operations was a great learning experience. SKSD was able to meet chefs where they were, help shift culture and behaviors, and build lasting partnerships with community leaders at small, local hunger relief organizations.
The results of the program were significant. Over the course of SKSD, the fifteen participating institutions showed an overall 42% reduction in food waste. This incredible result shows that simply introducing a little bit of attention to food waste can lead to significant impact.
Hearing feedback from the chefs about how excited they were to see food waste reduced—and hunger relief organizations excited about the quality of food they received through food recovery efforts—was an especially proud moment for me.
“This program belongs in every kitchen… small, medium size, it doesn’t matter. It belongs.”
— Miguel Rodriguez, Sous Chef, UC San Diego Health Hillcrest
SDFSA: Can you share any other memorable partnerships?
G: As SB1383 is being rolled out, cities in our region are dabbling in a space they have never been in before. Over the last year or so, the Alliance has been honored to step into a role as a liaison between cities, local food businesses, food recovery organizations, hunger relief organizations, waste haulers, and more.
We’ve gotten to be a leader and guide for twelve cities in San Diego County by acting as their eyes and ears on the ground, relaying the needs expressed by those who have long been working on food waste reduction efforts in their communities, and advising the cities on how we can collectively build a stronger food recovery network.
We’ve also dug into the analytical/research space, leading a countywide assessment on how prepared our region is to conduct edible food recovery at the scale we need to in order to reach SB1383 targets. There is such a powerful, existing movement in San Diego County that has been driven by folks long committed to this cause. They have used incredibly creative, resourceful, and selfless means to form their own infrastructure for recovering as much food (that would otherwise go to landfill) across the region as they can.
Our conclusions are that this food recovery community and movement needs far more acknowledgment and support—they are ready to lead even greater efforts in San Diego County that can help cities reach compliance with SB1383 and ultimately, fight both climate change and food insecurity.
SDFSA: What are some of the biggest lessons you’re taking with you, moving forward?
G: When I reflect on my time at the Alliance, the themes that rise to the top are collaboration and the importance of advancing collective, regional efforts. I’ve been amazed again and again by the super-collaborative nature of food waste reduction work in San Diego County, and am grateful to have been part of this inspiring community.
I also think of innovation. In our Wasted Food Prevention Program, we always maintained a commitment to catalyzing transformation through piloting experimental, innovative programs. We tested models for engaging both households and institutions in food waste tracking practices, to see if that would lead to behavior change (it did!).
I want to give a shout-out to my colleague Sarah Feteih, who led the Save the Food, San Diego! EcoChallenge—an interesting and insightful pilot that engaged residents in tracking and reducing their food waste, with the support of a digital community. It was a novel approach that yielded real results, and there is still much to learn from it today as we continue efforts to inspire behavior change at the household level.
We were able to share lessons learned from these pilot programs to the full region—and even to international audiences, contributing to a global movement to shift culture and change consumer behavior around food waste.
SDFSA: What is your vision for the future of reducing wasted food and transforming the food system?
G: The biggest thing is what the Alliance is working toward—a true paradigm shift in our values and culture. Reducing food waste is just one piece of a greater, collective vision for transforming the way our food system works. Imagine a reality where consumers are more engaged with, connected to, and supporting their local food producers, local food businesses, and local food economies. When those relationships are real, it’s harder to waste food. The “out of sight, out of mind” mentality becomes much less when you have a relationship with the people and places your food is coming from.
This is why I’ve enjoyed doing this work under the umbrella of the San Diego Food System Alliance—our team continues to emphasize how all of us working on seemingly separate issues across the food system are interdependent. Our issues and work are connected.
On food recovery: If we’re doing our best with reducing food waste at the source—through shortening supply chains, changing our values, connecting people with their food, preventing the feeling of disengagement that leads to waste, and putting an end to the habit of producing or preparing food in surplus—there should be less and less food to recover or divert from being landfilled. Food recovery efforts should be for emergency situations only, not a model to be relied on. When food needs to be recovered regularly, this illuminates systemic issues further up the chain.
At this point in time, however, food recovery efforts are incredibly important, and those who are leading efforts in gleaning, upcycling, and other methods of diverting edible food from being landfilled need to be fairly compensated and recognized. There’s an opportunity to rethink waste management, and make sure food recovery is an official part of the system.
SDFSA: Any final thoughts?
G: I’m incredibly grateful for the collaboration I’ve been able to experience while being in this role. The opportunity to work with so many people and organizations across San Diego County and beyond has been more than I could have imagined. Centering open, friendly collaboration, and working together toward systemic changes, is something I’ll continue to carry forward.
I sometimes think about how difficult it was to recruit for our Smart Kitchens San Diego program four years ago. I remember that after certain meetings, it seemed impossible to get commercial kitchen leaders to accept $20,000 of subsidized equipment and support for reducing their food waste. If we were to do the program now, however, I’m certain that the response would be very different. This is a testament to how times have changed, and how much our culture has indeed shifted. In 2018, no one knew or cared about what the program was trying to accomplish. Today, the desire to join efforts to work together toward a more healthy, sustainable, and just food system has truly shifted in a positive direction.
SDFSA: Geertje, we’re so grateful for the time you’ve spent with us. Please tell us what’s next for you!
G: I’m thrilled to share that I’ll be pursuing my Master’s degree in Environment and Resource Management, with a focus on sustainability, at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The Netherlands is where I was born and where my family is from, and although I’ve visited many times, living there as an adult has always been a dream of mine.
My program is broad, so I’m actually not sure what to expect! I’m hoping to uncover some new paths, perhaps learn about economics and environmental policy, and dig into the analytical side of fighting climate change. My time at the Alliance has also inspired me to keep equity at the forefront, and continue expanding my capacity to understand, speak about, and integrate a social justice lens into my studies and my work.
Experiencing life outside of the United States, in a socialist society, is going to be an exciting and welcome change! Living in a small country in Europe naturally lends to having a more international focus. I’m excited to gain some insight into what movements and collaboration are taking place abroad.
New beginnings for our Wasted Food Prevention Program
So, what’s next for the Wasted Food Prevention Program?
At the Alliance, we’ve decided to take a moment to think deeply about what the right next step for the Wasted Food Prevention Program might be. Geertje has been a central part of leading this work, and with her transition—along with the seeding of several new initiatives at the Alliance in the past year—a natural opportunity has presented itself for our team to look inward, take a breath, strategize, and not rush into hiring new staff.
We recognize that, in the interim, the community working on food waste prevention and food recovery in San Diego County may miss having a network weaver, and cities may miss having a consultant to call on for support and guidance with SB1383 implementation. Yet, we also recognize that when it comes to different streams within the greater movement for food system transformation, ending food waste is one of the most coordinated and well-supported efforts—in part because of the relationships Geertje has woven in our region over the last four years. Many experienced organizers have been dedicated to this area of work since well before that, too, so we only take this pause with the knowledge and confidence that the fight against food waste stands on a strong foundation in San Diego County.
Objective 7 of San Diego County Food Vision 2030, “Scale Up Food Waste Prevention, Recovery, and Recycling Initiatives,” remains an area we’re committed to. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we give the next chapter for this work the time and thought it deserves!