The Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) administers the Food Waste Prevention and Rescue Grant Program pursuant to Public Resource Code section 42999. The purpose of this competitive grant program is to lower overall greenhouse gas emissions by establishing new or expanding existing food waste prevention projects (source reduction or food rescue for people) in California to reduce the amount of food being disposed in landfills.
Eligible projects include:
- Food waste prevention projects that prevent food waste from being generated and becoming waste that is normally destined for landfills.
- Food rescue projects that result in rescued food being distributed to people, that would Otherswise be destined for landfills.
- Any food waste residuals from the food rescue project must be composted or sent to a digester within the project service area (if available).
Eligible expenses and activities will be described in the application documents. Eligible expenses will include, but are not limited to: refrigeration systems, refrigerated vehicles, personnel, food waste prevention tracking equipment/software, and food preparation items.
Projects must be located in California and result in permanent, annual, and measurable:
- Reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions attributed to the production, processing, packaging, distribution, and landfilling of California-generated food waste; and
- Increases in quantity (tons) of California-generated food waste, newly diverted from landfills, and prevented or rescued from disposal.
“Newly diverted” means the tons of materials that are currently being landfilled that will instead be diverted as a result of this project.
Projects resulting in a net increase of GHG emissions are ineligible and will not be recommended for funding.
Sign Up 
