Here are some new metrics that we will follow in the Report Card:
2024 operating efficiency $42.31 for every $1.00 spent on operations
Cars off the road 5,762
Metric of Tons of CO2 diverted 26,225 (Learn more about this calculation here)
Wholesale Value Calculation Adjustment
Our value calculation – the estimate of the wholesale value of food that we take in and distribute – has been adjusted based on the Feeding American 2023 Auditor’s Report that calculated the estimated average fair value of one pound of donated food product at the national level of $1.93. The value was determined based upon the pounds received as of the calendar year-end 2022 and 2021 studies performed by Feeding America. Each of the annual studies involves a review of 31 product categories and wholesale prices using a national wholesaler’s pricing catalogs. Other independent sources may also be used as necessary for items not included in the catalogs. The average value of one pound of donated product will vary from year-to-year based on the mix of product items donated and the current value of the product.
This is how applying that value to our Pounds In changed our value calculation:
Previously we calculated the value of the food we collected and distributed at $1 per pound for all categories of food with the exception of meat, which was valued at $5 per pound. This approximation materially underestimated the wholesale value of this food.
On the “believe it or not” front …
What’s a trillion dollars, among friends?
The current budget request proposed by the White House is $7.3 Trillion. How much is that? Well, if you were to lay $1.00 bills end to end, then one trillion of them would reach almost 97 million miles, a distance greater than the distance from the earth to the sun (93 million miles). According to Imagination Station, it would take a military jet flying at the speed of sound and reeling out a roll of dollar bills behind it 14 years to to run out of $1 trillion worth of those bills.
$7.3 trillion dollars – end to end – would stretch 707,418,589 miles.
Why does this matter? The answer is: inflation. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the 2025 budget deficit may amount to $1.8 trillion. That is just the amount that the US government will spend in excess of the money it takes in. This overspending amounts to about $5 billion a day. That overspending is on top of the spending that the government projects it can accomplish through tax revenues: $14 billion a day.
What is inflation? Without splitting hairs (price inflation, wage inflation, monetary inflation, etc.), inflation is simply too much money chasing too few goods and services. When incomprehensible amounts of money are thrown around the economy and the world, the only reasonable result is inflation. Inflation harms everyone, especially those with the fewest resources, including the food insecure.
On the “we’re only human” front …
Warehouse mishaps and what we call food re-rescue:
When this happens, all volunteers jump in to help clean up.
Operations Update
Through the online platform https://gocopia.com/ we were able to access food leftover from The
Players Champtionship Golf Tounament. In total we received 11,904 pounds (mostly drinks and produce by weight and chips by volume) from the PGA pickups. We hope this becomes a regular partnership in ending food waste and helping families in need. Our Palatka team sorting the first load of produce and dairy we received:
Here is our PIPS (Pounds In & People Served) Graph
Notes on the graph:
Last 3 month average of pounds in was 601,547. That’s a good place to be. But, of course, we are always seeking more.
Good News
In January of 2020, NRDC, WWF, Harvard Food Law Policy Clinic, and ReFED began working together as an informal coalition to engage with and inform policymakers on opportunities to prevent and reduce food loss and waste. In 2023 they formalized the partnership as the Zero Food
Waste Coalition.
Recently, they developed and launched the U.S. Food Waste Action Plan, now endorsed by over 60 businesses, nonprofits, and local governments. They realized the complimentary strengths of these organizations and see a critical opportunity to further advance responsible and ambitious food waste policy. Epic-Cure is proud to be one of their 170 members.
With our fellow ZFWC (Zero Food Waste Coalition) partners on 3/19 & 3/20, we did a “Fly In” to Washington DC and met with 51 offices to discuss the importance the No Time To Waste Act and the Food Date Labeling Act as critical pathways to address food waste in the US. A few members of the Coalition that joined us were:
Flashfood
Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic
Kipster
Mill
NASDA - National Association of State Departments of Agriculture
North American Food Systems Network (NAFSN)
NRDC
Spoonfuls
The Crop Foundation
Too Good To Go
U.S. PIRG
World Wildlife Fund
If passed, both of these bills would make substantial progress toward the US’ goal of halving food loss and waste by 2030 by strengthening federal agency coordination, establishing an office of Food Loss and Waste at USDA, and standardizing and clarifying date labels.
Top Farm Bill Priorities
Interested in joining our efforts?
Email zfwcoalition@gmail.com
or visit https://zerofoodwastecoalition.org/
We like to learn about our Coalition partners. We found this interesting article on the Spoonfuls website:
Spoonfuls Article - How Much Food Do We Need To Rescue to Feed Every American Facing Food Insecurity
“According to Feeding America, the average meal is 1.2 pounds of food. Using that figure, 1.2 pounds X 3 meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) = 3.6 pounds of food per day. Factoring in snacks, we’ll use 4 pounds of food per day per person in our calculations. This is also in line with estimates, calculated by calorie intake and food weight variety, that have determined 3 – 5 pounds of food per day are needed for a healthy diet.
Food insecurity in the US today
44.2 million Americans facing food insecurity x 4 pounds of food per day x 365 days per year =
64.53 billion pounds of food needed each year to feed every American facing food insecurity.
How much food needs to be rescued?
64.53 billion pounds of food are needed each year to feed every American facing food insecurity ÷ 161 billion pounds of food unsold or uneaten in the US each year = Rescuing 40% of all unsold or uneaten food in the United States would be enough to feed everyone facing food insecurity in the United States today.
Note: This amount of food needed is likely an overestimation of what we actually need to feed everyone facing food insecurity, because, food insecurity isn’t as simple as a person needing food assistance for every meal they eat throughout the year. Of course, there are people who do need that assistance, but others may just need support for a few months while they apply for jobs after being laid off. Others may be able to afford breakfast and lunch but need help putting dinner on the table. Every situation is unique. For the purpose of this thought exercise, we’re leaning into the over-estimated figure because it’s the most accurate number we have, and, allows us to be sure we’re covering all meals that are needed in our statement.
This is critical! All food is edible at some point, and while some of it may not ultimately be “rescuable” (due to weather, logistics, etc.), if we could rescue just two-fifths of what’s going unsold and uneaten in the US, we could feed everyone here facing food insecurity. Doing this math is a good exercise, showing us that hunger in the US is a solvable problem. Food rescue is one tool we have to tackle it. “
Turning to the environment, one of our chief target areas…
Food Waste and the Environment
We are going to focus on the environmental impact of food waste this month. Let’s start by taking a look at climate change indicators.
We are not going to analyze the climate change indicators from the EPA. You can look at the data and make your own judgements.
Emissions by Source
How does food waste factor into the Enteric Fermentation methane emissions? Let’s look back to our February 23 newsletter (full version can be found on our website):
Currently, about 12% of beef, 16% of pork, and 17% of dairy products go uneaten.
At 12% of beef, that is 3,150,084,000 pounds wasted in 2020. Yes, that is more than three billion one hundred and fifty million pounds of beef. Say that number out loud and let it really sink in.
And, then there is food waste in landfills. The EPA published a report in October of 2023 concluding that 58% of the methane emissions from landfills come from wasted food.
**MSW is Municipal Solid Waste
Landfill space fills up fast. Americans generate about 4.4 pounds of trash per day, and while some of it is recyclable, most ends up in the dump.
Now, many local landfills are closing because there is no more room in them.
LFG generated is the estimated amount of landfill gas generated by landfill in million standard cubic feet per day.
LFG Gas Solutions
It is estimated that an LFG energy project will capture roughly 60 to 90 percent of the methane emitted from the landfill, depending on system design and effectiveness. The captured methane is destroyed (converted to water and the much less potent CO2) when the gas is burned to produce electricity.
There are many options available for converting LFG into energy. Different types of LFG energy projects are grouped below into three broad categories – Electricity Generation, Direct Use of Medium-Btu Gas, and Renewable Natural Gas.
Carbon Credits and Carbon Offsets – A Primer
Carbon Dioxide – CO2 – is a fundamental building block of life on this planet. Plants require it
for photosynthesis, which is a process by which they, along with some other organisms (algae and some types of bacteria), use sunlight to make – synthesize – foods from sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide. During photosynthesis, green plants consume CO2.
During photosynthesis, plants consume CO2 and water (H2O) from the air and soil. Within the plant, water is oxidized (loses electrons) and CO2 is reduced (gains electrons), transforming the water into oxygen that the plant emits and glucose (sugar) which the plant stores as energy and uses to live. For a slightly deeper dive into photosynthesis, see this short and accessible article from the National Geographic Society.
Why is this concept important? Let’s let the National Institutes of Health weigh in. (Emphasis added.)
“Without plants, life would not be sustained on earth. People depend upon plants to satisfy their basic human needs such as food, clothing, shelter, and medicine. To date, these basic human needs are growing rapidly because of a growing world population, increasing incomes, and urbanization. Plants make up the largest proportion in our diet, in many countries the staple diet comes from rice or wheat. Humans get 85% of their calories from 20 plant species and interestingly 60% of that comes from three plant species, wheat, rice and maize.”
The leading line of this quotation says it all. No plants means no life. No CO2, no plants. No plants, no life. Does anyone remember the transitive property in mathematics?
If a = b and b = c, then a = c.
It is fair to say that CO2 is important. Eliminating it means eliminating life on this planet. So
much for hyperbole.
That is what we know. What we do not know, what bears further investigation and a whole lot more science than narrative, is to what degree is excess CO2 production, including that which is driven by human activity, negatively impacts the environment. In our bipolar world of political agendas and narratives, it is hard to find disinterested science. It is also hard to find robust data unaffected by those observing it (the observer effect and its underpinnings).
Wait, what? We do not want to engage in the polarized and polarizing debate; however, we do believe that everyone should be well equipped to understand the stakes of the underlying issue. Is there a climate crisis, and had it been engineered by humans? Let’s put a pin in that anxiety inducing question, make the assumption that, based on the importance of CO2 to all life on earth, that the pay-off for getting it wrong is the death of all life on earth, and explore what is being done to alleviate the risk. And so. Let’s start with the idea rewarding the underproducers of CO2 and punishing the overproducers of CO2. (Implicit here is the notion that it is not CO2 that is at issue; rather, it is excess CO2 that requires our attention, as does the question of where the line between acceptable and excess CO2 lies, precisely. Difficult stuff in an era of embellishment and distortion for narratives’ sakes.)
Let’s explore Carbon Credits and Carbon Offsets.
The Kyoto Protocol (1997) anf the Paris Accord (2015)
These two international accords were ratified by the vast majority of nations and set forth international CO2 emissions goals and the regulations to achieve them. Regulations put pressure on constituents, and these accords put the regulatory burden and costs on governments and businesses. For businesses, the pressure to reduce carbon footprints is real. Most solutions for businesses are market based: carbon markets.
Carbon markets derive from government regulation and put a price on CO2 emissions, making them a commodity. Now, CO2 emissions can fall into one of two categories: Credit or Offsets.
Carbon Credits and Carbon Offsets
Carbon credits (allowances) are like permission slips to emit CO2. The credits are
purchased by companies from regulators (the government). They are, in essence, a tax.
Carbon credits are, thus, mandatory. Moreover, companies can sell these credits to
other companies. Naturally, it would be unwise to sell anything other than excess CO2
emissions credits.
Carbon offsets flow between companies, that is to say that when one company removes
a unit of CO2 emissions from the atmosphere in the normal course of its business
activities, it generates a carbon offset, which can be traded with other companies to
offset their own carbon footprints.
Carbon credits are mandatory – regulatory compliance. Carbon offsets are voluntary.
What is a carbon credit or offset?
Each forms a different market; however, each has the same basic unit – One ton of CO2
emissions equivalent, or CO2e.
How much CO2 is a ton? Well, this measurement is a literal ton (by weight, measured
typically in metric tonnes (MT) – or 2,204.62 pounds per MT) and can be measured. It is
simply a matter of math and chemistry.
Carbon credits are issued by national and international governmental organizations. (In the US, only California operates a carbon market, issuing credits to residents for energy consumption.) Typically, issuance of credits is based on emissions targets, i.e., it is a subjective issuance set by regulators to cap or limit CO2 emissions. Around the world (examples: Canada, the EU, the UK, China, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea), the “cap” decreases over time, incentivizing companies to reduce emissions. At the same time, “cap and trade” programs (markets for trading emissions) enable companies to buy needed credits or sell unneeded credits.
Offsets are different. Companies that reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere (by planting trees, investing in renewable energy, or eliminating food waste) may issue carbon offsets. These purchases are voluntary and measurably reduce the amount of CO2e emissions that they “emit.”
Carbon Markets
A voluntary market is optional. Businesses electively buy credits to offset their CO2e emissions.
A regulated market is mandated – characterized by “cap and trade” regulations at regional or
state levels. Each company is issued a certain number of CO2e emissions credits annually, and those that produce less in emissions than the credits that they receive may sell the excess amounts to those that produce more emissions than their granted carbon credits permit. They must do so, by law.
For example, assume that in Florida, all companies are subject to a carbon credit regime (this is not the case, but it is useful for this example to pretend that it is). Let’s also say that there are two companies, Epic-Cure (you should know it well, by now) and the fictional Wesley Mouch & Co., a steel mill with early 1900’s steel manufacturing technology. (Kudos for those who follow the Wesley Mouch reference to its origin.)
Florida’s regulatory wizards grant each of Epic-Cure and Wesley Mouch & Co. 1,000 tons of CO2e emissions credits. Now, Epic-Cure uses 500 tons of CO2e emissions credits, while Wesley Mouch & Co. uses 1,500 tons of CO2e emissions credits. What might happen? Epic-Cure could sell its unused 500 tons of CO2e emissions credits (1,000 tons granted – 500 tons used = 500 tons available for sale) to Wesley Mouch & Co, which must get it use down to the legally mandated 1,000 tons of CO2e emissions (1,500 tons used – 500 tons purchased = 1,000 tons, final).
The production of tons of CO2e emissions credits
So, how might Epic-Cure have ended up using but half of the credits that the potentates on Florida’s (fictional) Carbon Credit Commission granted it? After all, with all that refrigeration and those refrigerated box trucks, all of which operate on (gasp) diesel fuel, should we not assume that Epic-Cure is a great producer of harmful greenhouse gases?
Generally speaking, there are a number of ways to produce carbon credits. Carbon offsetting projects might include renewable energy projects, improving energy efficiency, carbon and methane capture and sequestration (interestingly, many professional environmentalists oppose this method; a head scratcher from any perspective), land use and reforestation, and preventing food waste from decomposing in landfills and emitting methane gas.
That should be enough for now. The soporiphic objective having been achieved, we will eave this topic for now, intending to revisit it in more depth should there be sufficient interest expressed by you, gentle readers.
Fundraising
To our great delight, it is time for Team Epic-Cure to break out the "broken record" and trumpet our boundless gratitude for the continuous support that we receive from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are ever floored by their unwavering graciousness in supporting the more than 1,200 families across Putnam County that receive their vital donations of food and household goods. We are humbled and awed by the generosity of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and their constance in supporting Epic-Cure since 2020! These are a few things we’ve been able to give out to all of the families we serve there over the last 2 weeks:
Why is this resource used only for Putnam County? This is how we make our distributions for all families as equitable as possible. St. Johns’ source intake provides a much larger quantity and variety of dry goods than Putnam sources. When we look at allocating food, we consider our entire inventory at both warehouses and move food back and forth as necessary to make that happen. Are we perfect? No. But we do try hard.
“Beauty awakens the soul to act.” - Dante
Janet McNab is a Super Volunteer for Epic-Cure® and has been lovingly handcrafting these beautiful cards to help support our operations.
We hope that the beauty of her cards – as well as the beauty of her kindness in making them and offering them to you – will stir your own souls to act!
For $4.00 per card … or 6 for $20 … you can enjoy and share these exquisite pieces of handmade art.
100% of the sales proceeds will be donated to Epic-Cure® to support our continued efforts to feed the 2,200 food insecure families that we assist each week throughout St. Johns, Putnam, Duval, and Flagler counties.
Here’s how to get yours to have and share.
To purchase, email janetmcnabb@att.net. She has many different designs and will email photos to those interested. Here are some beautiful choices:
A new supporter of Epic-Cure® …
The entire team at Epic-Cure would like to express our deepest gratitude for the support we have received from the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation. We are delighted by their financial support of the unique business model we employ, an all volunteer model that emphasizes an efficient, entrepreneurial approach to food rescue and distribution aimed directly at ending food waste and food insecurity.
The Schulze Family Foundation focuses its giving in Florida and Minnesota with these primary focus
areas:
Education (including scholarships),
Human Services (including hunger, shelter, emergency relief, domestic abuse, veteran and
military family support), and
Health and Medicine.
Richard M. “Dick” Schulze is the founder of the Schulze Family Foundation. He is also the founder and now chairman emeritus of Best Buy Co., Inc., the world’s largest consumer-electronics retailer. The vision of the Foundation is to enable transformational change to benefit the communities it serves. We are honored to partner with the Schulze Family Foundation to affect positive outcomes for the people we serve.
More Super Volunteers
How much do we love Marie and her lovely and extremely hard working volunteers at The Refuge in Palatka? A LOT! You hear the phrase "working tirelessly" and don't give it much thought, but we see the relentless effort and resulting impact Marie and her group have helping people in great need and all we want to do is help her do more.
They along with our very own volunteers Donna, Brian, and Trinisha (and Matt, not pictured) took time out of their very busy schedules to help us in March. Selling very delicious plates of pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans and potato salad, they raised $1,110 for Epic-Cure. Because they never stop doing good, they used the leftovers to provide meals for 40 seniors.
We are extremely grateful. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
If you are interested in doing a fundraiser for Epic-Cure, we would be extremely grateful if you did.
Volunteer Spotlight
By Janet McNabb
Holly & Denny Ross
Denny and Holly have been community supporters a long time. Even before they became associated with Sunny and Epic-Cure, they were involved in helping those less fortunate.
HUGS has been located immediately next to the Epic-Cure warehouse in St. Augustine for almost as long as Epic-Cure has been there. As a result, Sunny and Holly have worked closely together, sharing their supplies.
Holly joined Hugs St Johns in 2016 when Hurricane Matthew hit. The HUGS group brought van-loads of food, clothing, and cleaning supplies to Sebastian Middle School for distribution.
Since then it has grown to include non-perishable, kid-friendly food to fill 23 pantries of St. Johns schools (out of 42) to fight food insecurity. It takes a couple of weeks of work per month to manage shoppers, drivers and deliveries.
Holly is now Vice President of the organization that is headquartered in the unit next to Epic-cure in St. Augustine. She is thankful for the ability to share food with Sunny. When they have expired cans donated, she knows Sunny will give them to the pig farmer. When she needs 120 bags of rice, Sunny can supply it, and when she gets items donated she cannot use, she knows Sunny will want them. It’s a win-win!
You probably know how often the Epic-Cure trucks need work. Well, here’s where Denny Ross shines! Denny is the owner of Kenworth Truck Company, and has had that business for 21 years, serving all of northeast Florida. He has frequently and generously repaired the Epic-Cure trucks (for free) to keep us in business.
They both are amazed at the growth of Epic-Cure and the graciousness and generosity of Sunny. “Sunny is just someone you can’t say “no” to!”
Epic-cure is so grateful for the association they have with HUGS St. Johns, and for the enormous generosity of Denny to help with the vehicle repairs. He keeps us on the road so we can continue our mission. Thank you, Holly and Denny!
Sustain U.®
These are a few of our cooking class teachers (left to right: Mimi, Cathy, Kathy, and Darlene). The kids at the Boys and Girls Club are lucky to have these special, dedicated mentors.
A little about our cooking class volunteers:
Mimi Heimsoth – After raising our 4 kids in Chicago and Maryland and doing lots of volunteering in schools and kids activities, we moved to Palencia to take advantage of being able to be outside all year long. I wanted to volunteer in the community and feeding the hungry suited me because my background was working as a registered dietitian and I also enjoy cooking. I started working in the warehouse during COVID and began teaching middle schoolers at boys and girls club at the re-launch of Sustain U in the fall of 2021 (which I said I would never do again after teaching middle school religious education where the kids literally were climbing out the windows). Fortunately, no one has done that and the kids seem to really enjoy learning and eating!
Cathy Kocotis Menefee was born in New York in 1951. She chose to attend college in West Virginia, where she met my husband Don. Being of Greek decent, she was raised to always be very loving and always help people in need, which attracted her to Don with the same beliefs. To date, Don and Cathy help pick up donated food from various food stores and bring to the Epic-Cure warehouse. She also volunteers at the B&GC, where she implements what she learned with her Home Economics degree, while loving new kids with similar interest. Cathy’s biggest achievement is raising two wonderful daughters, who chose professions in the helping field … one being a nurse and the other a special ed educator.
Kathy Scott moved to St Johns county 6 years ago. She and her husband, Russ, have always enjoyed volunteering to help others and found the perfect place at Epic cure. While Russ is involved with gathering the food, Kathy helps teach kids how to cook it. She enjoys making this small difference in the world.
Darlene Christianson is a self-proclaimed foodie who loves helping in her community. She loves sharing her love of cooking and watching our student's eyes light up when they learn something new. Darlene grew up in Canada and is now also a proud American. She has experienced many adventures in life, including working in the log home industry and owning and operating a touring company conducting tours all over Europe. Co-hosting a live television show in Canada and working in the airline business. She has lived all over the US including California, Missouri, Virginia, North Carolina, and now beautiful Florida. Besides proudly working with Epic-cure helping with the cooking classes and assisting with PR she has most recently taken on the position of Ambassador for OUR rescue, bringing awareness to Human Trafficking in the NE Florida region. If you are interested in helping sign up today https://www.facebook.com/groups/ournortheastfloridaconductorclub
Awareness:
An easy, impactful way that you can help us is to please …
Save And Drop Off Your Grocery Store Plastic Bags.
You will help reduce waste by allowing us to re-use them. You will save us money by reducing the number we have to purchase.
Transparency:
Anyone who wishes to see Epic-Cure’s financial statements need only ask.
Our CPA-Audited financial statements fiscal years 2021 and 2022 have been released and are available upon request.
Also available on our website.
Click here to view: Epic-Cure's Financial Statements
Our 2023 Audited Financial Statements will be reviewed by the Epic-Cure Board of Directors on April 7th. If approved by the Board, they will be issued by the Forde Firm, our CPAs, and published on the website as soon as possible.
Please email your requests to Sunny Mulford: sunny.mulford@epic-cure.org
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