Progress 06/01/23 to 05/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audiences for the project are as follows, in no particular order: venues, centers, and campuses and their food service providers - for this project, that includes Providence Park, Rose Quarter, Oregon Convention Center, Portland Expo Center, Portland'5 Centers for the Arts, the Oregon Zoo, and their shared food service provider Levy; historically underrepresented food producers; food rescue organizations; initiatives working to solve problems in the Pacific Northwest food system from social, economic, and environmental perspectives. The project serves a number of target audiences throughout the food system as it aims to address food insecurity and reduce organic waste through a food systems-wide lens. In many ways, the venues, centers, and campuses and their food service providers are the center of the ecosystem for the purposes of this project. These large institutions with high social-cultural influence have lofty sustainability and equity goals, but often struggle with enabling the capacity and consistency needed to achieve them through systemic operational changes. By offering consulting, relationship building, and added technical assistance for problem solving and the creation of SOPs that support more social and environmental forward practices, our project is making a trackable impact on these large entities and the individuals who help make them function. Supporting historically underrepresented farmers, fishers, and ranchers is a core part of The Wave Foundation's programming. In this project, we're working with Tribal fishers on the Columbia River, Native fishers in Bristol Bay, and BIPOC farmers and ranchers across the region. By working to overcome obstacles to market, we promote equity within the food system, prevent food from going wasted on farms, and increase the amount of regionally sourced healthy food available in the Portland community. Activities support food rescue organizations and the people they serve in the Portland area by increasing their access to surplus food with dignity & generating ease of donation pickups with the Careit platform. We work collaboratively in the zero-waste space by connecting with community partners and entities that are working with the venues to improve their food waste management. Some of these partners include COR, a black-owned and sustainability-minded waste hauler based out of Portland, and Bold Reuse, a company promoting the use of reusable serviceware at some participating venues. Government entities such as Oregon DEQ, the City of Portland, and Oregon Metro are engaged with the project and benefit from the added capacity and technical assistance our team provides the venues, producers, food rescue organizations, and food waste prevention efforts. Changes/Problems:The Wave Foundation (TWF) is dedicated to ensuring all activities address the actual expressed needs of the communities and groups we serve. Project implementation is driven by a community-based approach. With this in mind, TWF established new protocols and timelines that meet the needs of the various partners involved in the project. We've dedicated time and capacity to improving communication pathways, timelines & resources that reflect the current state of the industry, and protocols to ensure the success of overall project goals. This has led to smaller amounts of food donated and diverted from landfill than projected for year one - venues were not as prepared to jump in as we initially believed, so more of the year than expected was spent on onboarding, interviewing, reeducating, and adjusting timeline expectations to better reflect the current state of the facilities and their operations. Taking intentional time with different levels of staff at each venue to understand their context and needs is a huge part of the success of efforts and will ensure sustainability of these new systems. Careit will not be creating a platform for the movement of agricultural and fish products. As mentioned in Achievements, the project team identified the need for a private-sector entity to supporttransactions, distribution logistics, and business consulting for historically underrepresented producers. It was determined that a platform built by Careit alone would not be sufficient, as there is more needed than just an online resource. As of November 2023, the Wave Marketplace LLC has been established to fill this role. The project team previously held full coalition calls with over 70 stakeholders from various sectors invited. The Wave Foundation still intends to convene cross-sector partners on a regular basis, but realized the need for more focused meetings with Levy & venue operations staff to stay on track with project goals and in contact with representatives. The surveys that are intended to bring programactivities to new venues and food rescue nonprofits were not developed at the beginning of the project, as these surveysrequirethe use of lessons learned from the project to generate successful prompt questions, and additional funding to begin expanding to new locations outside of the commitment made in the narrative. These surveys were not developed in the first few months of the project - theyinstead will be developed inthe second year of this project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project team provided training to Levy staff and food rescue organizations, including Careit onboarding and food donation best practices. The Regional Food System Symposium and Social Hour workshop offered professional development related to design thinking & cross-sector approaches to problem solving for socio-environmental issues. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The Regional Food System Symposium and Social Hour attracted a diverse and vibrant group of people that represented every corner of Portland's food system. We were joined by Tribal leaders, local elected officials, sustainability professionals, corporate food and beverage representatives, venue operations staff, food rescue nonprofit representatives, communications specialists, historically underrepresented producers, and more. Project progress and goals were shared with the group before moving into the workshop. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Surveys to onboard new venues and food rescue nonprofits to programming will be developed in year 2. Goal 1 - Donation During the next reporting period, we will continue to monitor Careit activity & support the systemizing of the donation process with the app by implementing feedback and working with individual representatives. We will also determine long-term strategies for donation programs at participating locations by working with Levy, Metro, and venue representatives. We will support the identification of responsible parties for long-term program monitoring and reporting. We intend to see an increase in food donated through the platform and will support this goal with training resources, best practices guides, and onsite signage for Careit. In addition to supporting the food service providers at participating locations, we will growour network of food rescue nonprofits in the next reporting period. We will increase the number of hunger relief organizations that are engaged with the project, improve our understanding of nonprofit needs, and discuss long-term solutions for transportation infrastructure. Goal 2 - Waste We intend to host dialogues with venue representatives that are specific to the food waste diversion barriers in the Portland area and the state of Oregon to better understand perspectives, needs, and ways we can support. We will stay in touch with Metro and venue operations representatives to monitor food waste diversion progress, and create relevant resources to support pre-existing composting programs at venues. We will continue to support organic waste diversion, including back-of-house food waste operations at the venues. This is alongside Metro and City of Portland technical assistance providers to meet the local ordinance requirements. Goal 3 - Sourcing We will support the Wave Marketplace LLC to begin the sale of products from historically underrepresented producers, starting with both producers and venues that are most ready for this stage, then using lessons learned to expand to more within our network. We will continue to provide consulting and relationship building for producers and venues and work towards getting each producer approved through necessary compliance channels. We intend to consider Sakari Farms pilot specifically at one or more venue(s).

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Goal 1 -Donation The project team identified a lack of functional technology and facilitated communication between local nonprofits and venues, causing donatable food to repeatedly go to waste. Due to increased communication and training on the Careit platform through this project, relevant parties now have the tools to donate food effectively, and the proper contacts to ask questions andfind solutions as needed. The Wave Foundation (TWF) developed timelines for predata collection, onboardings, walkthroughs, and held preliminary meetings with venue leadership about Careit. TWF built and maintained relationships with venues and food rescue orgs to improve the Portland food security and food waste prevention networks. Project staff onboarded venues and food rescue organizations to Careit through virtual calls, toured facilities, and met with venue and food rescue representatives onsite. Project staff supported food rescue organizations and venues virtually on an ongoing basis, to offer capacity for determining SOPs, identifying points of contact, training additional staff, and ironing out any logistical obstacles with donations as they arose. Careit allowed for 6 large public-facing venues to donate surplus food & track activity, the coordination of food picked up by 8 different local nonprofits, and 2 sports venues tracking family meal created from leftover food items, totally to 72,992 lbs of food in year one. We Do Better Relief transported donations from venues to local nonprofits, purchased necessary containers for moving prepared food, and offered consulting on the food rescue scene in Portland. Careit allowed for 8 food rescue organizations to pick up food from the 6 large public-facing venues. The project team's partnership with We Do Better Relief allowed for consistency - in the event that other organizationswere unavailable to pick up the food, contracting with We Do Better Relief meant the team could reach out to request a pickup to ensure those items made it to the community. This has helped the newly built donation protocols move smoothly. Goal 2 - Waste TWF helped to establish a composting operation that enables venue waste to be used for agricultural practices. COR, a local black-owned recycling and disposal company that is focused on equity and sustainability, hauls waste from two of our participating venues.An on-site visit to Annen Brothers Compostfacility showed that bioplastics from Rose Quarter are effectively breaking down. TWF is stimulating ongoing conversations about food waste reduction & has established itself as a known resource in this space should the venues need support on improving their preexisting waste management programs. Efforts are being made to understand the locations' relationships with reuse strategies related to food, such as introduction of Bold Reuse reusable food serviceware at some venues. The state of Oregon and the City of Portland have developed regulations that make the use of compostable serviceware challenging. We have been monitoring this and supporting all of our partners the best we can, including the state and city by listening to everyone's feedback, providing insight, and supporting programs. The participating venues have diverted approximately 652,000 lbs of food waste from landfill (this does not include donations) in the first year of this project. Activities regardingfood waste diversion methods will increase in year 2. Goal 3 - Sourcing This project relies on authentic and trust-based relationships that TWF has with historically underrepresented farmers, fishers, and ranchers. In year one, the project team identified the need for a private-sector entity to support the movement of products from these producers (including but not limited to assisting with compliance procedures, transactions, distribution logistics, and business consulting.) As of November 2023, The Wave Marketplace LLC has been established with Bobby Soper as owner & CEO. This necessary development will lead to an increase in volume of sales. The Wave Marketplace Program run by TWF includes a group of nonprofit and for-profit organizations that collaboratively support systemic shifts towards equity and sustainability within the food & beverage industry. Some of these organizations include TWF, Food Fleet, and the newly established Wave Marketplace LLC. TWF staff, in partnership with Food Fleet & the Wave Marketplace LLC, have used the first year of the grant lifecycle to build robust relationships with various leaders at Levy (food and beverage provider at the Portland venues) & Compass Group (parent company of Levy). They were able to lay the groundwork for an intermediary solution to the barriers for historically underrepresented producers to sell to the Portland venues. Foodbuy USA (Foodbuy) is the central purchasing agent owned by Compass Group (Compass). It has many requirements around insurance, pricing, specs, and certifications that create barriers for local andhistorically marginalized producers. Food Fleet is already certified through Foodbuy, and has been given the go ahead to facilitate the purchase of seafood and produce from regional Native & Tribal producers. In the meantime, the Wave Marketplace Program continues to work directly with regional Tribal, BIPOC, and women producers to offer consulting, relationship building, and support to better understand requirements for long-term systemic access to the Foodbuy system. Providence Park purchased from some of the historically underrepresented producers in the network to showcase their products at TWF's Regional Food System Symposium & Social Hour. While this was a one-off event, it demonstrated the quality and capability of our producers to the venues and Levy. The team continues to work towards streamlining this system for purchasing and data tracking so the venues can choose to purchase from these regional producers on a more regular basis. Venue representativeswere interviewed and surveyed for relevant data and feedback, both of which are to be utilized in the final year of the project.

Publications