Harvesting Change: How Food Forward Rescues LA’s Abundance
🤙 About Event
How many oranges, loquats, and lemons drop on the sidewalk in your neighborhood each year? Could the solution to hunger in LA be growing in our backyards?
Los Angeles is overflowing with fruit trees and fresh produce that often goes unpicked and uneaten. Food Forward saw this untapped abundance and built a powerful model for food recovery — turning surplus into sustenance for millions across Southern California. In this session, Madi Kay, Volunteer Coordinator at Food Forward, shares how the organization went from one backyard harvest to becoming a regional leader in food recovery—rescuing over 300 million pounds of surplus produce to date.
Learn how their work helps LA meet SB 1383 food recovery goals, how the Good Samaritan Food Donation Act protects donors, and how their three programs—Backyard Harvest, Wholesale Recovery, and Farmers Market Recovery—connect surplus to need. Whether you want to volunteer, donate your tree’s harvest, or partner as a receiving agency, you’ll come away with clear steps to turn overlooked abundance into meaningful impact.
👋 Join Us!
Food is not garbage but we treat it like trash! How we deal with our kitchen scraps, unpicked fruit trees, and food that’s gone bad can help us save money, energy, and cultivate a more resilient food system. As part of the Food Sustainability Track of LA Climate Week, Seeds of Hope is hosting a full day dedicated to Food Rescue & Upcycling. Enjoy scrappy cooking demos, upcycling innovations, and composting workshops with local food hubs, upcycling activists, and food waste pioneers. See the full Food Rescue & Upcycling Day AND check out the rest of the Food Sustainability focused LA Climate Week events.
🙌 Event Hosts
Seeds of Hope cultivates wellness and food justice by helping communities reconnect with fresh, healthy food. We distribute more than 70,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables weekly, establish community gardens, and provide education on gardening, composting, healthy cooking, and food preservation to increase nutrition and minimize food waste.
Food Forward rescues fresh surplus produce that would otherwise go to waste and connects it to people experiencing food insecurity across Southern California. Since 2009, they’ve recovered over 350 million pounds of fruits and vegetables through backyard harvests, farmers markets, and wholesale recovery — building a more just, resilient, and waste-free food system.
☝️General Notice
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