community concern is food insecurity and how it can be addressed by repurposing excess food and food waste.

• A specific social problem/social justice issue/community concern is food insecurity and how it can be addressed by repurposing excess food and food waste.

An agency dedicated to finding ways to repurpose excess food and potential food waste from restaurants, markets, and farms (also cafeterias, hotels and stadiums). The food would be gathered through partnerships with businesses, organizations and farmers. The food would be repurposed through soup kitchens, food banks, and formal dinner night efforts.

A challenge would be that it is new legal territory when it comes to liability. Innovative efforts could be using the excess food and food waste for composting and community garden projects

• The agency would be Mezzo social work, forming an organization to help the food insecure/homeless Glendale community.
• Agency is located in Glendale, CA. This presentation is being given at a City of Glendale public community meeting to its community stakeholders. And can potentially be presented at a Los Angeles County/Regional community meeting.
• The agency will target food insecure individuals and families, and individuals and families experiencing homelessness in the Glendale community.
• The agency will get startup funding through government grants. The agency will sustain funding through fundraising efforts, business partnerships, and monetary and food donations.
• Top interventions would be providing the community with resources through a food bank, food pantry, weekly soup kitchen and a monthly formal dinner night. At the soup kitchen and dinner nights food waste and excess food would be repurposed into meals made by a gourmet chef.  The food bank and pantry would focus on donating fresh and packaged foods. There will be an educational component in the form of how to utilize food waste for gardening.  Our agency will have a small community garden that allows children, and community volunteers to contribute and learn more about what they can do to reduce food waste.
• The top 3 barriers to building and starting the agency would be: acquiring a location and receiving adequate funding, finding organizations that would like to partner with us despite liability, and funding the programs to repurpose foods in a timely, safe and healthy manner.