CRRA2019

Environmental Officer

Colleen Foster’s established record of experience within the public and private sector is highlighted by multiple achievements as it relates to Zero Waste initiatives, food systems and community engagement, stormwater/environmental compliance, climate action planning and implementation, program development, outreach, marketing, legislative compliance, budgetary oversight, and contract management. Ms. Foster has presented at dozens of conferences and seminars on Zero Waste, Clean Water, and Sustainability at both the National and International stage. Ms. Foster has been a CRRA member since 2012, and has served CRRA as a Southern California Board Member for two terms, and most recently as President.

Oceanside's El Corazon Sustainability and Culinary Arts Kitchen is the brainchild of a diverse array of social activists, city staff, food pioneers/geniuses, and a whole lot of passion for zero waste, food, and community.  This presentation will walk you through a journey that started with the question of what do we do with food that is ripe for rescue, but nowhere to be processed or stored.  How do we get it from Point A, source, to Point C, our families, with no place to safely receive, process, and distribute.  And when the food does arrive to our families, do they truly understand what to do with it, and how to avoid food waste.  Listen to horror stories such as “we threw away 500 gallons of milk, due to a lack of cold food storage”, or our “daily after school hot meal program comes from over a 100 miles away every day, because there are no commercial kitchens in the area” that all became the dialogue behind the need for a Kitchen. The El Corazon Sustainability and Culinary Arts Kitchen aims to solve the dilemma of food waste from every point of its journey, from sourcing, receiving, processing, distribution, to education about how to cook, enjoy, store, and compost when needed. 

Founder

Founder and President of Feeding the Soul Foundation: an organization dedicated to culinary arts, nutritional education, and music. Owner of Jitter’s Coffee Pub, a warm and inviting space for a cup of java and great people. Executive director of the Oceanside Kitchen Collaborative: a program that supports zero waste by sourcing surplus and “ugly” fruits and vegetables from local growers and provides full service conscience catering, creatively delicious preserved products and community zero waste culinary education to the San Diego region.

As the Executive Director of the O'side Kitchen Collaborative, the operator of Oceanside's El Corazon Sustainability and Culinary Arts Kitchen, Vallie will present on the unique aspect of desiging and balancing a viable and successful catering business with food recovery, organic sourcing, community culinary arts engagement, and job development.  Her role has been invaluable in the design of the kitchen, concept for operations, and overall community buy in for the program.  She will present on the challenges and successes for launching such an innovitive and unique community based food kitchen program. 

Food Recovery & Utilization Director

As the food recovery and utilization director, Jenna has her degree in Environmental Economics with a background in the environment but also has extensive experience in culinary field. Both her environmental passions and culinary background have come together harmoniously in the creation of the sustainable kitchen. Her role is to form partnerships with gleaning organizations, growers, and farmers throughout the region to purchase agricultural surplus to provide training, conscious catering and preserve products.

Organics

Food recovery and partnerships with gleanup organizations as well as farmers, and growers, are an important aspect of the kitchen. Purchasing agricultural surplus and imperfect produce are just part of what goes into the sustainable kitchen, the other pieces include providing training, conscious catering and preserving products that can be donated to programs in need.

Vice President, Operations

An expert in building administrative infrastructure, I have 20 years experience in the corporate world. Formerly a social justice research fellow at MiraCosta College, I designed sustainable solutions for economically disadvantaged students. My continuing work features ongoing interactions with disadvantaged community members and college administrators alike, with the intent to address homelessness and food insecurity among the student population.

O'side Kitchen Collaborative supports zero waste efforts by partnering with local farms and food businesses to divert and rescue fresh produce to nourish and educate our community. We achieve this through food rescue and preservation, conscious catering, and training programs.

Environmental Specialist

Sarah Davis has served the City of Solid Waste and Recycling division for the past 6 years.  In her short time with the City, Sarah has designed and developed multiple successful programs including but not limited to mandatory recycling services, Green Oceanside Business Network program, Donate Dont Dump (Large Item Reuse program), Food Recovery community based programs, compost education programs, and sustainability makeoever workshops series.  Her invaluable contribution to contract management, clean water/environmental compliance, and public engagement as it relates to solid waste, water, and environment have been invaluable to Oceanside's community buy-in for zero waste, climate action, and water conservation.