Volunteers from Bracken's Kitchen, OFRF staff, and volunteer chefs in front of Bracken's Kitchen van filled with donated food from luncheonMarch 5, 2020 – As many of you have heard, Expo West and related events were postponed this week due to COVID-19. Unfortunately, that meant postponing our annual fundraising event, which we have held for 23 years on the day before Expo opens. That would have been yesterday.

A small crew from OFRF, along with our amazing volunteer chefs, had begun prepping the all-organic lunch for over 300 guests this past weekend. When the decision to postpone Expo West was made late Monday afternoon, we immediately contacted Bracken’s Kitchen, a non-profit located in Orange County whose mission is to recover, re-purpose, and restore both food and lives through food recovery, culinary training, and community feeding programs. They happily picked up all the perishable food Tuesday morning. Nothing will go to waste.

So, you can make lemonade out of lemons after all! We’re really glad the food from the luncheon will go to community members who don’t have access to sufficient nutritious food to feed themselves and their families.
chefs loading perishable food into Bracken's Kitchen van

 

Beyond covering event costs, ticket sales, sponsorships, and donations are key to helping us continue our research, education, and advocacy programs throughout the year. As part of our mission to improve and advance organic farming systems, we provide free access to all of our research results and educational materials at ofrf.org. Without your support, we couldn’t this work.

Thank you so much for all you do for OFRF and the organic community!