Every Tuesday afternoon, a team from San Jose nonprofit Hunger at Home heads over to Santana Row. But they aren’t visiting the swanky shopping center for lunch at Left Bank or to browse the upscale stores. Instead, they are making the rounds to more than a half-dozen restaurants to pick up unused — but edible — food that would otherwise go to waste.
The team collects food from restaurants including Straits, Ozumo, Left Wing, The Counter, Veggie Grill. The eateries have been spurred, in part, because of a state law that went into effect this year that directs most restaurants, hotels, event venues to reduce their food waste through food recovery programs.
“We don’t like to tell businesses that this is something they have to do now,” Hunger at Home CEO Ewell Sterner said. “It’s really something they get to do. They get a true return by donating to those who are food insecure. Most important, it’s just the right thing to do.”
Sterner points to USDA estimates that show 92 billion pounds of food go to waste each year and 38% of all food goes unsold or uneaten. Reducing food waste not only helps keep people fed, he said, but also reduces disposal costs for businesses, helps them manage inventory and may provide a tax deduction. There’s even the possibility it helps curb climate change by reducing the methane emitted by food waste.
In addition to Santana Row, Hunger at Home works with Levi’s Stadium, the Santa Clara Convention Center, San Pedro Square Market, Shoreline Amphitheater, corporate caterers like Jillbee Delivers and food service giant Sysco. The food is packaged and distributed to more than 40 nonprofit partners like the YWCA, HomeFirst, Bill Wilson Center and the Salvation Army and also directly to people every week at PayPal Park. You can find out more about Hunger at Home’s programs at www.hungerathome.org.
Runa Brakaj, senior area manager for Santana Row owner Federal Realty, said nearly all the eateries at the center take part in the food recovery program, and Santana Row’s been held up as a model for other large venues that want to do the same.
“We got less pushback than you would have expected,” Brajak said. “The restaurants are all happy to be giving.”
SUBSTITUTE STOMPER: San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan won’t be defending his grape-stomping title at this weekend’s Italian Family Festa at History Park, after all. Mahan has to attend to a family matter out of town and will miss Sunday’s final that was going to be between him and whichever celebrity stomper won Saturday’s competition.
But don’t cancel your plans: Former San Jose City Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio will be stepping to the tub Sunday in Mahan’s place. Now, if this were a city council meeting, I’d expect Vice Mayor Rosemary Kamei to do the honors, but we’re not following Robert’s Rules of Order here. No doubt Oliverio’s Italian heritage gave him the upper foot.
Saturday’s competition still includes Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor, Milpitas Mayor Carmen Montano, Sunnyvale Mayor Larry Klein, Saratoga Mayor Yan Zhao and Morgan Hill Mayor Mark Turner — along with a sixth “celebrity” competitor: NBC Bay Area Weather Anchor Cinthia Pimentel. Get the full lineup of activities on Saturday and Sunday at www.italianfamilyfestasj.org.
LADIES’ NIGHT: When you conjure up an image of Original Joe’s in San Jose, it probably includes big portions of Italian food, the cooks working their magic at the charbroiler and waiters (once tuxedo-clad but now dressed in black-on-black outfits). And in that image, the waiters are always guys — which was always the case for 68 years until Thursday night.
On that historic evening, the entire dining room staff was made up of all female servers for the first time, including manager and co-owner Michelle Rocca and bartender Aryn Miller — who was the first woman to work behind the bar at the iconic downtown restaurant when she was hired just a couple of years ago.
In a social media post, restaurant managers said it wasn’t a statement, either; the schedule just worked out that way.
LIFETIME OF SERVICE: The San Jose Police Department this week honored 98-year-old Joe Bria, and if you don’t know who he is, you probably weren’t one of the thousands of schoolchildren he kept safe working as a crossing guard near Piedmont Middle School for the past three decades.
Bria, who enlisted in the Navy when he was 17 during World War II, worked as a welder in San Jose and not long after he retired in 1991, he had a conversation with a crossing guard during a neighborhood walk that led to his next chapter in life. He served as a crossing guard for the Berryessa Union School District in 1993 and greeted students near White Road and Penitencia Creek Road for the next 30 years.
HONOR ROLL: Congratulations to Sunnyvale resident Gerrye Wong who will receive the Award of Excellence for Individual Lifetime Achievement from the American Association for State and Local History for her tireless work preserving and sharing Chinese American history in California. Wong, who will receive the award at the group’s national conference in Alabama next month, co-founded the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project in 1987 and was instrumental in the creation of the Chinese American historical museum at History Park, a replica of the Ng Shing Gung temple.
Meanwhile, Silicon Valley Creates has announced that muralist and arts educator Elba Raquel and singer-songwriter Esther Young are the recipients of its Content Emerging Artist awards this year. Selected from 48 applications, each artist will receive a $5,000 cash award and will be recognized at the Content Magazine pick-up party on Aug. 22 at the School of Arts and Culture at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose.
