Luis Yepiz is on a mission to ensure that “those in need get what they need to be fully functional people in society.” Luis works tirelessly to feed food insecure communities every day as the Manager of Food Forward’s Wholesale Recovery Program. Food Forward is a food rescue organization that distributes fruits and vegetables to food assistance agencies in eight Southern California counties. However, the history and development of this organization, as well as Luis’s story, are much more intricate than meets the eye. I had the opportunity to speak with Luis on July 10th amid the hustle and bustle of his exceptionally busy work days, to learn more about his background and its convergence with Food Forward.
Luis first told me about the inception of Food Forward in 2009 and its Founder and Executive Director, Rick Nahmias. Rick had noticed an abundance of oranges going to waste in the LA area, where they had been grown in the 1940’s and 1950’s. He began to organize a group of volunteers to round up oranges and deliver this fresh fruit to food banks. This initiative marks the beginning of the Backyard Harvesting program, which still exists today. Luis said that in the first year, the group collected 100,000 pounds of fruit. As the organization grew and after it became a 501c3 organization, they eventually established two new programs: the Farmers Market Recovery program and the Wholesale Produce Market Recovery program. Luis now categorized Food Forward as the “largest food recovery organization in the LA area” and “one of largest in the US”—the organization provides food to about 1,800 agencies.
Luis’s journey to Food Forward is a detailed and fascinating one. Luis is the grandson of two farmers, and his father was a truck driver and mechanic, so he grew up around the agricultural and truck industries. He said that he started “volunteering straight out of high school.” For several years, he volunteered for a “journalistically independent” radio station called KPFK where he was “exposed to many social issues,” one being hunger. Luis then began volunteering with food banks, sparking his interest in food rescue and helping food insecure communities. He also volunteered with the South Central Farmers in LA and eventually began working as a volunteer at a “small food bank.” One day, a driver who picked up food and delivered it to the food bank wasn’t able to carry out a delivery, so Luis, a skilled driver, executed the delivery. He recalled driving to the LA Wholesale Market, “collecting donations,” and driving the “truck full of produce” back to the food bank. He continued consistently working for the food bank and eventually began doing “food procuring.”
Through Craigslist, he discovered Food Forward, which was only four years old at the time. He was hired to work part-time as a manager and to serve as a driver for deliveries. He was already aware of “many food recovery agencies'' in the area, which helped him and Food Forward reach more communities in need. After three months, Luis took a full-time position at Food Forward. He works in the Wholesale Recovery Program, which moved “4.3 million pounds in the first year” and “kept growing” from there, according to Luis. He described how exciting it was when Food Forward launched its original campaign to purchase a truck and was successful. Now the organization has four trucks, four drivers, and last year they moved nearly 25 million pounds through the Wholesale Recovery Program alone! In total, Food Forward moved 26.5 million pounds last year, across their three programs.
Luis said that COVID-19 has had a large impact on his community, leaving many “without a job” and unable to access “basic needs.” He described pride in his capability to help his “organization meet these needs” that have grown as a result of the pandemic. Luis thinks of food insecurity as a “systematic problem” and a “social disaster.” He aims to “correct a wrong,” the wrong being food insecurity, that has existed for “over 100 years.” Luis’s aspiration is to “create bridges between those in need and the agricultural system.” Luis, who is even more impressively an award winning poet, writer, and opera singer, has devoted his life to fighting hunger and serves as a role model for us at The Farmlink Project. We are grateful to have the opportunity to partner with Luis at Food Forward.
You can learn more about Luis here.
Objective 1 engages with wasted food before the retail level, mainly incorporating USDA and EPA actions to build out food storage infrastructure, increase food donation, and invest in research to prevent food loss at the packaging and transportation level. The most important inclusion in Objective 1 was an added paragraph spotlighting Section 32 as a critical part of the nation’s food safety net. Section 32, a longstanding part of the 1935 Agricultural Adjustment Act (one of the first Farm Bills), uses agricultural customs receipts to fund the large-scale purchase of surplus produce from farmers and its transportation to hunger-fighting charities, schools, and other recipients nationwide. This program keeps millions of pounds of produce out of landfills each year, compensates farmers for their work, and fights food insecurity. Its inclusion as a food loss solution is critical to minimizing on-farm food loss while supporting farmers and reducing hunger. Objective 1 also indicates that the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) data can be used to identify points of surplus, an important expansion of current methods. Still, we will continue advocating for Farmlink and other food rescue organizations with existing, diverse networks of farmers and other food suppliers to be incorporated at a national level to better identify and address points of surplus food.
Farmlink is particularly excited about a new prioritization within Objective 2: “All projects aimed at increasing food rescue and donation should assess the quality, nutrition and appropriateness of the food being rescued, not just the quantity (e.g., consistent with Indigenous food sovereignty).” Since Farmlink’s founding, one of our core values has been to prioritize and maintain dignity associated with charitable food distribution, and a new emphasis on quality, nutrition, and appropriateness, especially in terms of indigenous food sovereignty, is a critical step to ensuring that the strategy is fighting hunger in an equitable, open-minded, and just way.
Objective 2 also now has the EPA's commitment to use life cycle assessment techniques to evaluate food waste prevention strategies, the results of which will inform consumer campaigns and incentives. They have also committed to refining and expanding food donation and recovery infrastructure through the Excess Food Opportunities Map. Farmlink will continue to advocate for the inclusion of food rescue organizations with existing networks and relationships to help expand these tools.
These changes are great. But how’s it all going to be funded?
During the comment process, Farmlink, as well as other food rescue organizations and coalitions, raised critical questions about how the strategy would be funded and, as a result, which measures are feasible. In particular, we hoped for more clarity beyond the draft’s statement that the USDA would use American Rescue Plan Act and Inflation Reduction Act funds and the EPA would use Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds. Of the 86 programs or initiatives reviewed in the final strategy, only 15 are completely new programs announced in the strategy.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5ffe29e15f6569d732bec2b3/669fc8ce0f88c9bc7ced3ba7_New%20FLW%20Program%20(11).jpeg)
The other 71 are existing programs or initiatives that either already have a food loss and waste focus or that the national strategy has repackaged as food loss and waste solutions. While we had hopes of new, innovative programs being included in the strategy, the good news with these 71 programs is that most, if not all, are already funded, meaning that they are not reliant on an increasingly turbulent Congress for implementation. Of the 15 new programs, which included the EPA’s new consumer education campaign and several new cooperative agreements with land-grant universities, only 2 had specific funding mechanisms. It has become increasingly clear that food rescue organizations and other stakeholders in the food and agriculture space should not consider this strategy as a new rollout of FLW solutions, programs, and funding but rather as an evaluation of the current resources and solutions and how each can be most effectively utilized to achieve the strategy’s goals. In particular, the framing of many of USDA’s programs as FLW solutions offers opportunities to utilize existing funding, data, and infrastructure to solve one of the United States’s most pressing problems.
Whats next?
Now that we have the strategy, it’s time to truly take advantage of the opportunities it presents. In the immediate future at Farmlink, we’re excited to continue optimizing Section 32 as a critical on-farm food loss solution as we anticipate significant surplus recoveries in the fall. As we move forward, we continue to advocate for dignity with food distribution, emphasizing cultural appropriateness and quality in every pound of food we rescue. As outlined in our comments, food rescue organizations are critical stakeholders and thought partners for the agencies. Our inclusion in the strategy as such is an opportunity we are taking full advantage of to help guide federal action to support farmers, feed communities, and heal the planet.
< BackLuis Yepiz is on a mission to ensure that “those in need get what they need to be fully functional people in society.” Luis works tirelessly to feed food insecure communities every day as the Manager of Food Forward’s Wholesale Recovery Program. Food Forward is a food rescue organization that distributes fruits and vegetables to food assistance agencies in eight Southern California counties. However, the history and development of this organization, as well as Luis’s story, are much more intricate than meets the eye. I had the opportunity to speak with Luis on July 10th amid the hustle and bustle of his exceptionally busy work days, to learn more about his background and its convergence with Food Forward.
Luis first told me about the inception of Food Forward in 2009 and its Founder and Executive Director, Rick Nahmias. Rick had noticed an abundance of oranges going to waste in the LA area, where they had been grown in the 1940’s and 1950’s. He began to organize a group of volunteers to round up oranges and deliver this fresh fruit to food banks. This initiative marks the beginning of the Backyard Harvesting program, which still exists today. Luis said that in the first year, the group collected 100,000 pounds of fruit. As the organization grew and after it became a 501c3 organization, they eventually established two new programs: the Farmers Market Recovery program and the Wholesale Produce Market Recovery program. Luis now categorized Food Forward as the “largest food recovery organization in the LA area” and “one of largest in the US”—the organization provides food to about 1,800 agencies.
Luis’s journey to Food Forward is a detailed and fascinating one. Luis is the grandson of two farmers, and his father was a truck driver and mechanic, so he grew up around the agricultural and truck industries. He said that he started “volunteering straight out of high school.” For several years, he volunteered for a “journalistically independent” radio station called KPFK where he was “exposed to many social issues,” one being hunger. Luis then began volunteering with food banks, sparking his interest in food rescue and helping food insecure communities. He also volunteered with the South Central Farmers in LA and eventually began working as a volunteer at a “small food bank.” One day, a driver who picked up food and delivered it to the food bank wasn’t able to carry out a delivery, so Luis, a skilled driver, executed the delivery. He recalled driving to the LA Wholesale Market, “collecting donations,” and driving the “truck full of produce” back to the food bank. He continued consistently working for the food bank and eventually began doing “food procuring.”
Through Craigslist, he discovered Food Forward, which was only four years old at the time. He was hired to work part-time as a manager and to serve as a driver for deliveries. He was already aware of “many food recovery agencies'' in the area, which helped him and Food Forward reach more communities in need. After three months, Luis took a full-time position at Food Forward. He works in the Wholesale Recovery Program, which moved “4.3 million pounds in the first year” and “kept growing” from there, according to Luis. He described how exciting it was when Food Forward launched its original campaign to purchase a truck and was successful. Now the organization has four trucks, four drivers, and last year they moved nearly 25 million pounds through the Wholesale Recovery Program alone! In total, Food Forward moved 26.5 million pounds last year, across their three programs.
Luis said that COVID-19 has had a large impact on his community, leaving many “without a job” and unable to access “basic needs.” He described pride in his capability to help his “organization meet these needs” that have grown as a result of the pandemic. Luis thinks of food insecurity as a “systematic problem” and a “social disaster.” He aims to “correct a wrong,” the wrong being food insecurity, that has existed for “over 100 years.” Luis’s aspiration is to “create bridges between those in need and the agricultural system.” Luis, who is even more impressively an award winning poet, writer, and opera singer, has devoted his life to fighting hunger and serves as a role model for us at The Farmlink Project. We are grateful to have the opportunity to partner with Luis at Food Forward.
You can learn more about Luis here.
Luis Yepiz
Manager of Food Forward’s Wholesale Recovery Program
Luis Yepiz is on a mission to ensure that “those in need get what they need to be fully functional people in society.” Luis works tirelessly to feed food insecure communities every day as the Manager of Food Forward’s Wholesale Recovery Program. Food Forward is a food rescue organization that distributes fruits and vegetables to food assistance agencies in eight Southern California counties. However, the history and development of this organization, as well as Luis’s story, are much more intricate than meets the eye. I had the opportunity to speak with Luis on July 10th amid the hustle and bustle of his exceptionally busy work days, to learn more about his background and its convergence with Food Forward.
Luis first told me about the inception of Food Forward in 2009 and its Founder and Executive Director, Rick Nahmias. Rick had noticed an abundance of oranges going to waste in the LA area, where they had been grown in the 1940’s and 1950’s. He began to organize a group of volunteers to round up oranges and deliver this fresh fruit to food banks. This initiative marks the beginning of the Backyard Harvesting program, which still exists today. Luis said that in the first year, the group collected 100,000 pounds of fruit. As the organization grew and after it became a 501c3 organization, they eventually established two new programs: the Farmers Market Recovery program and the Wholesale Produce Market Recovery program. Luis now categorized Food Forward as the “largest food recovery organization in the LA area” and “one of largest in the US”—the organization provides food to about 1,800 agencies.
Luis’s journey to Food Forward is a detailed and fascinating one. Luis is the grandson of two farmers, and his father was a truck driver and mechanic, so he grew up around the agricultural and truck industries. He said that he started “volunteering straight out of high school.” For several years, he volunteered for a “journalistically independent” radio station called KPFK where he was “exposed to many social issues,” one being hunger. Luis then began volunteering with food banks, sparking his interest in food rescue and helping food insecure communities. He also volunteered with the South Central Farmers in LA and eventually began working as a volunteer at a “small food bank.” One day, a driver who picked up food and delivered it to the food bank wasn’t able to carry out a delivery, so Luis, a skilled driver, executed the delivery. He recalled driving to the LA Wholesale Market, “collecting donations,” and driving the “truck full of produce” back to the food bank. He continued consistently working for the food bank and eventually began doing “food procuring.”
Through Craigslist, he discovered Food Forward, which was only four years old at the time. He was hired to work part-time as a manager and to serve as a driver for deliveries. He was already aware of “many food recovery agencies'' in the area, which helped him and Food Forward reach more communities in need. After three months, Luis took a full-time position at Food Forward. He works in the Wholesale Recovery Program, which moved “4.3 million pounds in the first year” and “kept growing” from there, according to Luis. He described how exciting it was when Food Forward launched its original campaign to purchase a truck and was successful. Now the organization has four trucks, four drivers, and last year they moved nearly 25 million pounds through the Wholesale Recovery Program alone! In total, Food Forward moved 26.5 million pounds last year, across their three programs.
Luis said that COVID-19 has had a large impact on his community, leaving many “without a job” and unable to access “basic needs.” He described pride in his capability to help his “organization meet these needs” that have grown as a result of the pandemic. Luis thinks of food insecurity as a “systematic problem” and a “social disaster.” He aims to “correct a wrong,” the wrong being food insecurity, that has existed for “over 100 years.” Luis’s aspiration is to “create bridges between those in need and the agricultural system.” Luis, who is even more impressively an award winning poet, writer, and opera singer, has devoted his life to fighting hunger and serves as a role model for us at The Farmlink Project. We are grateful to have the opportunity to partner with Luis at Food Forward.
You can learn more about Luis here.