Our Food Rescue program is growing! In order to meet the needs of our community, the 60+ agencies we serve, and the additional school pantries we’d like to open this year, we are actively seeking new large-scale food donors.
We want to nourish young minds and the rest of our community with the healthiest, freshest food possible, and provide other grocery or wholesale food products to allow people to have enough to eat week in and week out.
And if you’ve never seen our Food Rescue program at work, check out this quick 1-minute video from when WPE won the SF Foundation’s John R. May Innovation Award. The video features our very first school pantry in action at the E.M. Downer School in San Pablo.
If you know of a store, market, or other food wholesaler or manufacturer, who might be interested in donating to WPE's program, please reach out to Erica Brooks, our Director of Strategic Partnerships at erica@whiteponyexpress.org.
Because we pick up and deliver over 6,000 lbs of food in our refrigerated trucks every day from our regular Food Rescue partners, unfortunately we currently are not able to pick up smaller amounts of donated food or food from restaurants or caterers.
If you'd like to bring donated food to our Pleasant Hill distribution center, we are open from 9 AM to 4 PM seven days a week. There are special rules around donations of catered, home cooked, and foods from private parties, so please check out this web page or contact our Dispatcher Hotline and leave a message with any questions you might have about donating food dispatcher@whiteponyexpress.org
2019 Food Rescue Program Wishlist
Here are the items we are actively seeking from major retailers, wholesalers and distributors:
• Fresh fruits and vegetables
• Meat, eggs, cheeses, milk, butter, yogurt and other dairy items
• Nut butters, nuts, nut milks and other proteins like canned fish/chicken
• Prepared foods (wraps, salads, sandwiches, ready-to-heat or microwave meals )
• Cooking oil
• Frozen foods
Please contact Erica Brooks, our Director of Strategic Partnerships at erica@whiteponyexpress.org if you are interested in donating, or have helpful referrals to sources of donated food in or near Contra Costa County.