A donation to California charities from the Save Mart Companies includes one to the Central California Food Bank. And, according to Romel Martinez Escarrega with the food bank, that gift will be felt far into the future.

The grocer’s CARES Foundation on Tuesday announced it would give $201,000 to four different charities including:

• $100,000 to the Central California Food Bank
• $50,000 to Second Harvest of the Greater Valley
• $35,000 to True North Housing Alliance
• $16,000 to the Yuba-Sutter Food Bank

The money from the foundation’s Feeding Forward Grant Program will help build out infrastructure to make food recovery at retail locations easier and faster, a news release stated.

“We are humbled by the need in our communities and at our local food banks. Unfortunately, we couldn’t fund all the very worthy programs, but we know that this initial investment into our local food system will have an impact,” said Joan Dobias-Davis, chair of the CARES Foundation. and senior vice president of the Save Mart Companies. “The Save Mart Companies CARES Foundation will continue working to ensure that our neighbors have access to the food they need to live a healthy life.”

200,000 Tons of Food Recovered, 2.5 Billion Potential Meals Lost: CalRecycle

More than 200,000 tons of unsold food went to community members in 2023, beginning with grocery stores, collected by food banks, and distributed to families, according to CalRecycle. The agency states that another 2.5 billion meals of potentially donatable food gets put in landfills every year.

California’s Senate Bill 1383, passed in 2016, requires methane emissions from organic waste be reduced 75% by this year.

The $100,000 gift to the food bank will help recover more of that food, Escarrega told GV Wire in an email.

“Feeding Forward Grant Program funds will enable CCFB to simplify and maximize food rescue by providing equipment and technological support to our member partners to help them pick up, store, and report pounds of retail rescue products with greater ease,” Escarrega said.

The funds will go toward purchasing equipment to better capture unsold food. That includes commercial refrigerators and freezers, battery-operated scales, thermal blankets, shopping carts, and folding tables. A refrigerated vehicle could be another possibility.

The food bank has 37 partners picking up food in Fresno County, 13 in Tulare County, eight in Kings County, three in Madera County, and one in Kern County.