Giving Compass' Take:

• Food Shift, a California-based nonprofit, is launching a food waste recovery campaign and offers job training for individuals impacted by food-insecurity, homelessness, addiction, and incarceration. 

• What is the value of job training initiatives? Are there opportunities in your community to support food insecurity projects? 

• Read about other programs ensuring food security.

The California-based catering nonprofit Food Shift recently launched a campaign to expand its catering program targeting food waste recovery and unemployment into a larger space.

For the last eight years, the organization has been repurposing misshapen or food that would otherwise be wasted and providing job training to those affected by addiction, incarceration, and homelessness to address the root causes of poverty and food insecurity.

The organization’s job training program is working to create permanent employment for those impacted by poverty and food insecurity. “While we need charity and emergency food assistance, these models haven’t solved hunger and we have a huge opportunity in this movement to develop and expand solutions that create economic value and invest in the people who have been most systematically oppressed,” explains Dana Frasz, Food Shift’s founder and director to Food Tank.

Food Shift has graduated 25 people from their job training program so far, placing them into service industry jobs. “Seeing the transformation and growth of individuals who go through our program is one of the most inspiring and important elements of our work,” Frasz tells Food Tank.

Based on rising demand for Food Shift’s catering services, the organization has begun to face challenges at meeting the requests they receive: “We are turning down food, people, and catering opportunities due to the limitations of our kitchen size and access,” explains Frasz to Food Tank.

Food Shift hopes this expansion will allow the organization to save more food, train more people, and continue its mission to address the systemic aspects of poverty and food insecurity. “Food is powerful and so much more than just nutrition – we can use it as a tool to educate, empower, connect, and uplift communities,” Frasz tells Food Tank.

Read the full article about food shift by Thea Walmsley at Food Tank.