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Leftovers to the Rescue Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Neil Buettner, left, and Keri Christianson sort through organic produce brought into the kitchen at Access Inc. in Medford by the nonprofit's Food Rescue van. The program rescues restaurants' leftover food and grocers' wilted produce before it heads to the trash. Restaurants, groceries join ACCESS program to deliver unused food to those in need By JONEL ALECCIA What a waste. That's what Bryce Goodro used to think every night as he trashed pounds and pounds of leftover food from the kitchen of the Outback Steakhouse in Medford. Freshly mashed potatoes. Perfectly good produce. Tasty soups and sauces. "I hate to throw anything away," says Goodro, the restaurant's kitchen manager. "I just was raised not to waste anything." In the last year, however, Goodro's kitchen waste has become a resource, thanks to ACCESS Inc.'s Food Rescue program, which transforms untouched commercial leftovers into grocery staples for the area's hungry. Started in May, the program retrieves an estimated 815 pounds of food a day from 25 area restaurants, plus care centers, grocery stores, convenience markets and other locations, said coordinator Christine Soderstrom. "Last year, we saved 63,000 pounds of food from going to the landfill," she said. Instead, foods ranging from slightly wilted lettuce and spotted bananas to prepared potato soup and fresh crab are whisked away from their home kitchens in a refrigerated van and transported to the ACCESS center, where Neil Buettner is waiting. On a recent morning, the ACCESS kitchen manager eagerly received boxes brimming with the day's early haul: produce from Jeff's Harvest Market in Ashland, plus containers of tomatoes, soup and mushroom sauce from the Outback. "It's just stuff they can't sell," Buettner said. "It may be oranges because they got some new oranges. We get everything from potatoes to pineapples." Indeed, there were potatoes AND pineapples in that day's shipment, which was quickly sorted, weighed, measured and repackaged. Within 48 hours, everything will be shipped out again, this time to a network of 16 Jackson County food pantries and 25 social service agencies. "This potato soup is ready to go," he said. "It'll probably go to the west Medford food pantry to go out tomorrow." At the pantry, one of several that serve some 2,000 area families each month, clients will take home dishes served at some of the region's best restaurants. "We have a list of donors posted,'" Soderstrom said. "It's kind of cool for homeless people to say 'I'm dining at the country club tonight.'" One of three Food Rescue programs in Oregon, the ACCESS project was modeled on a similar plan in Lane County. Grants help offset the $116,000 annual cost for the program, which got a kick start from Boise Cascade Corp., which donated the refrigerated van. Most days, Soderstrom and driver Keri Christianson travel from Ashland to Shady Cove, pulling up to the back doors of restaurants along the way. They usually return to the center mid-morning to unload because the van isn't big enough to accommodate all the food that restaurants discard. The reason for the waste isn't that the food is spoiled, noted Goodro of the Outback Steakhouse. It's perfectly edible food that may be just past the "freshness window" that the restaurant requires. "A lot of product, if I make it for today, I can't serve it tomorrow," said Goodro, who gives away 20 to 40 pounds a day to ACCESS. "This way, people receive food at the peak of freshness but we can't serve it because of our integrity." Clients participating in the program range from the Red Robin and the Rogue Valley Manor to Jeff's Harvest Market. It's a relief to them to participate, Soderstrom said. "People tell me all the time, 'I'm so glad you're doing this. I'm so tired of throwing things away,'" she said. Most of the food goes to area pantries. Some of it goes to programs such as local Boys and Girls Club after-school sites and, most recently, to the Medford Senior Center. Director Patti Proctor has accepted only a few donations, so she's not sure yet how much of an impact it will have on the grocery bills at the independent center, but she said the food is welcome. "What we're getting is green salads, baked beans or potato salad," she said. "Some of the things we can use; some of the things we can't." Of the morning's load of 250 pounds of food, only about 5 pounds can't be used, said Soderstrom, a former foreign language teacher who finds even more value in her current job. "It makes you feel good at the end of the day you are doing this work to feed people who really, really need it," she said. Reach reporter JoNel Aleccia at 776-4465, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.