Kern County Public Health has started the “Waste Hunger Not Food” program to get restaurants and schools to donate to food banks. The department bought three refrigerated trucks to pick up produce that would have gone to the landfill, and Public Health Assistant Director Brynn Carrigan says their goal is to combat food insecurity. “116-thousand people everyday, just here in Kern County, don’t know where their next meal is coming from, so we wanted to take that 40-percent of food that’s wasted and…divert it to people in need.” The trucks were purchased with grants from Cal Recycle and Kaiser Permanente, they will be driven by people who are transitioning back into the workplace from the Bakersfield Homeless Center.

Suzanne Grant