City Council
259 N. Wilma Avenue
Ripon, CA 95366
MEMO
To: Honorable City Council
From: James Pease, Public Works Director
Date: 12/10/2024
Subject: San Joaquin County - MOU
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Approve and authorize the Mayor to sign the Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Ripon and the County of San Joaquin for the enforcement of the State required Edible Food Recovery Program within Ripon city limits.
BACKGROUND:
California State Senate Bill 1383 (SB1383), which was signed into law by Governor Brown in 2016, required jurisdictions to adopt enforceable ordinances that are consistent with the requirements of the Organic Waste Diversion regulations to mandate compliance from organic waste generators, haulers and other entities. The law establishes methane emissions reduction targets in a statewide effort to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants in various sectors of California's economy and establishes a target of a 50 percent organics disposal reduction by 2020 and a 75 percent reduction by 2025 using 2014 as the baseline. The law also grants CalRecycle the regulatory authority required to achieve the organic waste disposal reduction targets and establishes an additional target that not less than 20 percent of currently disposed edible food is recovered for human consumption by 2025.
To meet the mandated statewide goal, the law requires each jurisdiction in California establish and monitor a food recovery program and require certain food businesses to send the maximum amount of edible food they would otherwise dispose to food recovery organizations.
DISCUSSION/ANALYSIS:
SB 1383 places commercial edible food generators into two tiers to allow businesses and jurisdictions time to expand or build new food recovery infrastructure and capacity to donate foods that are harder to safely store and distribute.
Tier One Donors Tier Two Donors
Required to Send Surplus Food to Food
Organizations Starting January 1, 2022:
Required to Send Surplus Food to Food
Organizations Starting January 1, 2024:
•Supermarkets with revenue ≥ $2million.
•Grocery Stores with Facilities ≥10,000 sq. ft.
•Food Service Providers
•Food Distributors
•Wholesale Food Vendors
•Restaurants with Facilities ≥ 5,000sq. ft. or 250+
seats
•Hotels with an On-Site Food Facility and 200+
Rooms
•Health Facilities with an On-Site Food Facility and
100+ Beds
•Large Venues and Events
•State Agency Cafeterias with Facilities ≥ 5,000 sq.
ft. or 250+ seats
•Local Education Agency with an On-Site Food
Facility
•Non-Local Entities
For capacity planning and oversight, Ripon had to first identify which commercial edible food generators are required to recover and distribute excess food based on the thresholds set under the two tiers listed above. Currently, Ripon has 2 commercial businesses in the Tier One category and 11 commercial businesses in the Tier Two category. Ripon is required by the State to perform the following actions under the food recovery program of SB 1383:
• Provide education and outreach to Tier One and Tier Two commercial edible food generators by February 1, 2022
• Assess their community’s current food recovery capacity and plan for additional capacity if it is insufficient to accommodate the amount of food that commercial edible food generators must send to food recovery organizations • Inspect commercial edible food generators to ensure they are sending the maximum amount of edible food they would otherwise send to a landfill • Post contact information for food recovery organizations on the jurisdiction’s website so that commercial edible food generators can identify which organizations could potentially accept their food
Ripon and several other jurisdictions in the area have been working with San Joaquin County in an effort to help streamline the inspection process. The attached Memorandum of Understanding essentially designates San Joaquin County the authority to perform inspections and review records of Tier One and Tier Two commercial edible food generators. Ripon will then be responsible for enforcement if compliance has not been met. The County will be incorporating the compliance inspection into their regularly scheduled Health Department inspections and an additional fee will be billed directly to the businesses accordingly.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
The attached Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Ripon and the County of San Joaquin for the enforcement of the City’s Edible Food Recovery Program has no direct financial impact to the City although staff resources can be allocated elsewhere as County staff will be performing the inspections.
Attachments:
1. MOU Edible Food Recovery Program