Join us from 12-1pm on Friday, November 15th, for the Florida Food Forum on "Food Waste & Food Banks: An Evolving Strategy." Guest presenters David Vaina, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives at Treasure Coast Food Bank, and Krista Garofalo, Chief Strategy & Advocacy Officer at Treasure Coast Food Bank, will be sharing their experience and knowledge about this important topic. Following the presentation will be a discussion and Q&A session. The event is a free online forum that is open to the public.

Topic Summary: Food banks have a long history in collective efforts to reduce food waste in the US, though this was largely limited to their partnerships with the retail industry.  But there’s been a significant expansion in how and where food banks are doing this work.  This month’s presentation, titled “Food Waste & Food Banks: An Evolving Strategy”, will broadly cover the ways food banks are working to address food waste and include an in-depth profile of Treasure Coast Food Bank’s production kitchen which serves as the organization’s fulcrum for reducing food waste in our region.  

Bios: David Vaina is the Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives at Treasure Coast Food Bank. As such, he leads the organization’s workforce development, client services, social equity initiatives, data analytics, and evaluation initiatives. Before returning to Treasure Coast Food Bank in November 2019, he was the statewide Education & Outreach Director for the Gainesville-based Florida Organic Growers and taught organic gardening at Santa Fe College. For many years now, he has written and presented on local food systems, organic farming and gardening, GMOs, and fermentation.

Krista Garofalo is the Chief Resource Officer at the Treasure Coast Food Bank in Fort Pierce, Florida.  She has 17 years of experience in marketing communications,  program development, project management, and advocacy in the non-profit field. For her body of anti-poverty work, Krista was named a member of the National Advisory Council on Maternal, Infant, and Fetal Nutrition of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and been invited to speak at learning conferences hosted by various national organizations, including Feeding America, Food Research & Action Center, and the American Commodities Distribution Association.  She holds a Masters in Public Administration with certificates in Non-Profit Organizations and Women’s Studies from the University of Georgia and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies with a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies from The College of New Jersey.

Forum Host: Dell deChant, Associate Chair, Religious Studies Department, University of South Florida.  Member of the Board of Directors, Florida Food Policy Council.

For the seventh year, St. Anne's in New Port Richey will be providing a traditional Thanksgiving meal to the homeless and hungry in our community. Last year, they served 378 meals and took more than 100 leftover meals to local shelters. They also distributed more than 6,000 donated items. Help St. Annes, and those they serve, by spreading word of this event and by collecting donations of non-perishable food, new or used clothes or personal hygiene items.