Environmental Studies and Sciences Senior Capstone

Date of Award

3-10-2026

Document Type

Poster

Abstract

Santa Clara County (SCC) produces over 50 million pounds of surplus food, yet 31% percent of county residents are reported to be at risk of food insecurity, lacking reliable access to proper, affordable nutrition. Additionally, SCC produces approximately 40,000 tons of food waste annually. Food waste decomposes in landfills, producing greenhouse gas emissions, posing a pressing public health and environmental issue. California’s food waste law (SB 1383) addresses this challenge. We aimed to provide actionable insights that enable local farmers to donate more surplus produce, identifying ways to divert food loss from local farms to recovered food hubs, turning potential loss into a community resource that can be distributed to combat food insecurity. We used a mixed-methods approach, combining semi-structured stakeholder interviews and surveys to identify the primary barriers to farm-level food donation. This research demonstrated how farmers' conditions affect their likelihood of engaging food recovery programs, directly informing the operational design of Joint Venture’s recovered food hubs. Misalignment between regulatory mandates and operational realities; specifically, the complexity of claiming the tax incentives of SB 1383, significant logistical barriers in cold-chain management, and high labor costs of continuous staff retraining render food recovery impractical for many commercial generators. In the future, pragmatic donation options need to be offered to farmers.

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