Urban Ag and Food Recovery Tour at the CRRA 48th Annual Conference

Urban Ag and Food Recovery Tour - 
August 21, 2024

Grow2Zero FARMS presents a look into food recovery efforts that are being made in our urban landscape. Our vision at Grow2Zero FARMS is to empower local communities to improve human & environmental health by building access to local, healthy food, teaching regenerative farming & gardening practices, and instilling principles of waste reduction and pollution prevention. This tour will show you how our local communities believe we should toss it in a meal before tossing it in the landfill. 

Tour Stops:

Stop 1: Vallarta Supermarkets in Anaheim, learn about the amazing work being done by the food donation program.

Stop 2: Food Finders in Los Alamitos, one of the largest regional food recovery orgs in Los Angeles/OC area.

Stop 3: Grow2Zero FARMS in Long Beach, tour a 1/4 boutique urban farm that has partnered with Long Beach Unified to provide farm and gardening education and also runs the Future Urban Farmers Academy to train local youth on urban farming. The farm also recovers and redistributed landfill-bound food to over 125 local households per week at no cost. The farm composts non donatable food which is used to nourish the soil. The farm is in a disadvantaged community with high levels of poverty and pollution since it is next to the port of LA and several refineries. The farm is on a main street and we highlight that it uses the CO2 from tailpipes driving by to feed the plants as well as backyard composting and compost take-back. 

Stop 4: Feel Good Salsa in Long Beach, a ghost kitchen training young chefs to make value-added products from recovered food which is then distributed free to local residents as part of weekly food fairs. Sponsored by USDA grant. 

The “Do’s and the Don’ts”

• Do wear closed-toe shoes (It’s a MUST)