2022 DMV Food Recovery Week Recap

At-Home Composting sessions were offered in English and in Spanish.

We celebrated Fall with DMV Food Recovery Week on Oct 16-22, and what a week it was! In partnership with this year’s co-hosts — the DC Food Recovery Working Group, the Prince George’s Food Equity Council, and the Montgomery County Food Council — we had 10 public events focused within Washington D.C. and Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. Twenty-six organizations, businesses, and government agencies participated in hosting and presenting events. Three events were held in person; the others were held virtually. This year, for the first time, one event, “At-Home Composting,” was conducted in Spanish.

The Minimizing Food Waste at Home session was very popular, a good indicator that people want to learn how to save food and money, especially with inflation boosting grocery bills. Hosted by the Capital Area Food Bank and Recycle Leaders, attendees learned how to reduce food waste at home by properly storing, saving and freezing food, getting creative with leftovers, and preparing recipes with minimal food waste.

The Minimizing Food Waste At Home event was very popular with attendees and the recording is on the DMVfoodrecoveryweek.org website.

Representatives from across the DMV shared their most impactful local food waste prevention policies and frustrating roadblocks. They discussed innovative policies and how to advocate for the upcoming Farm Bill to expand national and local programs. This session was presented by The Institute for Public Health Innovation, DC Food Policy Council, Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, Prince George’s County Department of the Environment, Prince George’s County Food Equity Council, City of Alexandria, and the Natural Resource Defense Council.

Visitors toured Koiner Farm, an urban farm in downtown Silver Spring, to see how they are supporting a closed-loop micro-food system. They heard firsthand from Koiner’s farm managers about composting capacity, community impact, and the replication of their model. There was also a meet-‘n-greet with representatives from the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, the Montgomery County Food Council, Community Food Rescue (CFR), and others who are working to make our local food system more sustainable and resilient.

Each year Manna Food Center hosts the No Waste, Big Taste Cooking Competition. This year we were warmly welcomed into the brand-new Marriott International headquarters in downtown Bethesda. Marriott chefs from DC, MD and VA faced off in a “chopped-style” food and drink competition in the newly opened Marriott International test kitchen, using a mystery basket of recovered food and ugly produce.

Plating the winning dish are Chef Phil Skerman, from the Ritz Carlton Pentagon City and Sous Chef Truphena Choti, from AfriThrive Inc.

And the winners were: Mixologist Alfredo Espinoza, Marriott Bethesda Downtown, with Heather Bruskin, Montgomery County Food Council; and Chef Phil Skerman, The Ritz Carlton Pentagon City with Dr. Truphena Choti from AfriThrive Inc.

While the chefs and mixologists whipped up their creations, audience members learned about Manna Food Center and our food security partners, food waste prevention and food recovery efforts. We invited members of our CFR network to participate as sous-chefs and mixology assistants, including participants from AfriThrive Inc., Guru Nanak Foundation of America, Tacombi Foundation, and the Montgomery County Food Council. We also invited Manna supporters as contest judges including Montgomery County Councilmember Andrew Friedson, and representatives from The UpCounty Hub, Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, and Sandy Spring Gardens. 

CFR network members compete as sous chefs while talking about their food security work.

Thank you to our media sponsors, The List, Are You On It? And El Pregonero. All virtual sessions were recorded and are available for viewing on the DMV Food Recovery Week website.