Harvest Change Kick-Off Party to be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 6 at Topa Topa Brewing Co. in Ojai. 20 notable SoCal food leaders will feature pomegranates in a month of dishes, drinks, desserts supporting Food Forward’s mission to rescue fresh produce and feed those in need
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — Last year, Food Forward’s “Harvest Change” campaign engaged the public in the issues of food waste and food insecurity by partnering with four SoCal restaurants and breweries to showcase sweet corn, tomatoes, and basil in seasonal specials. This year, the participant number has jumped to 20 chefs, bars, bakers, and makers in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties who will all highlight one fall fruit: pomegranates.
Redbird | Vibiana Chef Neal Fraser, Preux & Proper’s Sammy Monsour, Clementine’s Annie Miler, Minh Phan’s Porridge & Puffs, Little Sama in Ojai, Genever, and La Casita Mexicana are among the partners serving drinks, dishes, and desserts highlighting the prolific and versatile pomegranate in a menu item throughout October. A portion of the sale from these items will be donated to support Food Forward’s mission: to reduce food waste and fight hunger.
In just ten years, Food Forward has rescued more than 80 million pounds of fresh produce, donating 100% of it to 1,800 hunger relief agencies, serving 2 million food insecure Southern Californians across eight counties annually. In addition to volunteer-powered backyard harvests and farmers market gleanings, The Produce Pit Stop, a new refrigerated warehouse that opened this June, exponentially increases the organization’s ability to collect and store produce from the Downtown Wholesale Produce Market. In July, the first full month of the Pit Stop’s operations, 2.7 million pounds of produce were collected and distributed.
1 in 9 Californians lacks adequate access to food, while millions of pounds of perfectly good fruits and vegetables go to waste here every day. Foodservice leaders are beginning to take a stand to share their values and educate the public about this problem. Sammy Monsour of Preux & Proper in DTLA says, “We live in a society of social extremes, with plenty of folks wasting an immense amount of wholesome foods, while others fight hunger, or reside in a food desert. Food Forward’s impact is measurable, positive and critical—that’s why I choose to support them any chance I get.” Preux & Proper will be serving Arctic Char Crudo with toasted hazelnut, pomegranate, smoked rainbow salt, purple ninja radish, and fig-kumquat shrub.
Harvest Change participant Michelle Kenney, of Oxnard’s La Dolce Vita is all in, with three different items on the menu: A spinach salad with pomegranate seeds and vinaigrette; pomegranate pistachio crostini; and from the 1901 Speakeasy, a pomegranate, sage, gin, elderflower sparkler.
She says, “We were raised with fresh produce (my family owns Perricone Farms) and always appreciated the quality of real whole food. We never wasted anything and grew up sharing whatever we had. We love the idea of Food Forward as that is how we try to live our lives every day. We support anything that helps eliminate food waste and food insecurity.”
Activities surrounding Harvest Change include a kick-off party at Topa Topa Brewing in Ojai on Sunday, October 6 and a social media contest that people sampling the pomegranate dishes throughout the month can enter. See the Calendar Listing below for details.
Harvest Change Participants: Los Angeles County
barcito Downtown Los Angeles
Clementine Century City and Beverly Hills
Chef Michele and Co. Downtown Los Angeles/Caterer
Genever Historic Filipinotown
La Casita Mexicana City of Bell
Porridge + Puffs Historic Filipinotown
Preux & Proper Downtown Los Angeles
Proof Bakery Atwater Village
Redbird | Vibiana’s Neal Fraser Downtown Los Angeles
Röckenwagner Marina Del Rey
Sage Plant Based Bistro Culver City, Echo Park, and Old Town Pasadena
South City Fried Chicken Downtown Los Angeles
Harvest Change Participants: Ventura County
Ex Voto Ventura
King & King Ranch* Fillmore
La Dolce Vita Oxnard
Little Sama Ojai
Ojai Rotie Ojai
Paradise Pantry Ventura
Revel in Ojai Ojai
Topa Topa Brewing Ojai
*King & King Ranch is donating 10% of the total sales of fresh pomegranates through October
CALENDAR LISTING
WHEN: Sunday, October 6, 2019; 5-8 pm
WHAT: Harvest Change Kick-Off Party
WHERE: Topa Topa Brewing Co. Tap Room; 345 E Ojai Ave; Ojai, CA 93023
CONTACT: Laura Jellum, 818 764 1022 x112, laura@foodforward.org
About Food Forward: Food Forward (501(c)(3)) fights hunger and prevents food waste by rescuing fresh, surplus produce, connecting this abundance with people in need and inspiring others to do the same. Fruits and vegetables are collected from backyard fruit trees, public orchards, farmers markets, and the downtown Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Terminal. 100% of the recovered produce is donated to hunger relief agencies across eight counties in Southern California. The organization has won four consecutive Food Recovery Challenge awards from the U.S. EPA (2015-18) for its work to prevent and reduce food waste.