By Katlin Sweeney
Editor-in-Chief
Local food distribution program, Donate Don’t Dump, was honored by the Environmental Protection Agency for its outstanding work in bringing almost one million pounds of food to
people across the country that are suffering from food insecurity.
Donate Don’t Dump (DDD) is a program that works with local food banks and grocery stores to collect food that has reached its expiration date but is still good for about another week. Since these products can no longer be sold after its expiration date, grocery stores end up having to throw away food that is still safe to consume. This results in about 96 million pounds of food wasted every year.
The problem is not that there is too much food; it is that many people cannot afford how much these products cost. This inability to buy enough food to eat, known as food insecurity, affects approximately 1 in 6 Americans across the country. In an effort to reduce the amount of food that becomes trash and give it to those in need, DDD was created.
Carlsbad High School student Gabri Posard created DDD at the age of 12 after learning about this disparity between food that is thrown away and how many people are in need. Five years later, Donate Don’t Dump now saves up to 30,000 pounds of food per month. For some individuals, these are all of the groceries they rely on to meet their needs for one week.
Dr. Laura de Ghetaldi, a Kinesiology professor at CSUSM and the faculty adviser for Kinesiology Club, established the relationship between the club and the Donate Don’t Dump creator when she became one of their mentors.
In addition to other youth environmental awards, de Ghetaldi nominated Posard and DDD for the Presidential Environmental Youth Award. Posard, along with her younger brother Ethan, DDD organizers, Grace Manuel and Mia Pacheco, and Dr. de Ghetaldi, attended the EPA ceremony on Aug. 12 at the White House. This is DDD’s second award, having received the President’s Volunteerism Award last year as well.
“Cal State has been the most active chapter of Donate Don’t Dump out of the 20 chapters across the nation,” Posard said. “They have been a huge help in keeping the program running, with many of the volunteers being from the Kinesiology Club and the university.”
CSUSM’s chapter of Donate Don’t Dump has worked avidly to ensure that the campus population and surrounding community benefit from the donated food as much as possible. This year, they have increased the amount of food distributions to every second and fourth Tuesday of the month, even on Dec. 23 when school is out of session. While the program used to only be offered during the academic year, Dr. de Ghetaldi said that they now have the funding to distribute food even when students are not in classes.
Kinesiology Club President, Madison Silvas, looks forward to increasing the ways in which the DDD program helps individuals in the San Marcos area in the upcoming year.
“We are determined to provide a steady food distribution schedule for the individuals of the community and students who rely on them as their food source,” Silvas said. “This [award] has also motivated us to extend DDD out to other universities in hopes that they will be inspired to start their own chapter and help their communities and students.”
Participation with the food drives has not been limited to the campus student body and faculty. Members of the local community have adopted the cause as well, including individuals like Scott Mack, who heard of DDD through friends. He attended the food distributions four to five times before he became one of the truck drivers that delivers food to the DDD sites.
“It is a great experience knowing that you are helping others, more than anything else,” Mack said.
Donate Don’t Dump looks forward to continued growth, notably throughout the state. According to Dr. de Ghetaldi, she and ASI President Haley Perko will be presenting the idea of bringing DDD to all of the CSU campuses in January when they meet with the other ASI presidents.
For information on when food distributions take place and how you can get involved, please visit facebook.com/DonateDontDump and facebook.com/csusm.kinesiologyclub.