California’s SB 1383 mandates that municipalities recover and redistribute edible food to minimize waste and feed people—not landfills. But to fully realize the spirit of this law, cities and school districts must collaborate across governmental lines. This session will explore how innovative partnerships between municipal governments, school districts, and nonprofit organizations like Produce Good and +BOX/Brighter Bites can build an efficient, community-centered food recovery system.

We’ll show how recovered surplus produce—gleaned from local farms, backyards, and retail partners—can be redistributed to families through trusted school-based programs. This approach not only supports municipal compliance with SB 1383, but also enhances student wellness, improves attendance, and helps schools recapture critical funding tied to Average Daily Attendance (ADA).

By leveraging school infrastructure and community trust, cities can meet food recovery mandates in a way that strengthens local food systems, reduces health inequities, and improves educational outcomes. Participants will learn from real-world examples where this type of collaboration has already taken root, and will leave with actionable strategies for building a shared food recovery and redistribution pipeline that works for both city governments and school districts.

This session is ideal for school district leaders, city officials, sustainability managers, and nonprofit partners interested in turning a compliance challenge into a community-wide opportunity for impact.

Learning Objectives

1. Uncover the value of cross-jurisdictional collaboration to achieve mutual goals and objectives benefitting the community at large.

2. Identify opportunities and actors within their own communities to seek out and engage to replicate the presented model

3. Understand and gain a framework for replicating the model within their own orgs.