Waste Not Want Not: Cold Storage Helps Serve OC's Food Insecure

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — A 40-foot refrigerated cargo container is parked on the grounds of Anaheim High School. Nicknamed "the Beast," this is the world's first off the grid, fully sustainable, completely green 100 percent solar-powered freezer.

In a state where wildfires rage in the north, a heatwave blazes across the state, and a pandemic still reigns, a non-profit Waste Not OC is rising to serve the needs of the many. Through increasing the amount of cold food storage available, the group hopes to reduce food insecurity not only in Orange County, but across the nation.

The group has developed a method to take food from various restaurants that otherwise would go to waste, and enlist support of food prep kitchens across Orange County to make "ready to serve" nutritious meals for the needy. Storing meals is no longer a problem, with the storage unit freezer, now sitting on the Anaheim High School campus grounds.

Anaheim High School has hosted multiple food distribution events over the summer, Principal Robert Saldivar said. The school has served between 800 and 1,000 families at each event. He believes the freezer will be a "huge resource for the community."

The group will begin food distribution through a variety of networks, Patch was told. Currently they are planning construction of duplicate containers to help the needy across the state.

Mike Learakos, Executive Director of Waste Not OC, and Impact The Change's Founder, Jonathan Stone worked together to conceive and retrofit the 40-foot refrigerated cargo container to serve their needs. The unit will generate its power, virtually eliminating food waste, and operate "off the electrical grid" through solar-power, Learakos says.

The cold storage unit is a prototype that has already helped many through its original construction.

In San Diego, Steve Steppe of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Union Black Caucus led the conversion project, providing at-risk young adults with vocational training during the retrofitting.

Local businesses, food recovery kitchens, are developing nutritious meals for the unit to help protect. Waste Not OC expects to manage inventory and manage temperature for as many as one million vacuum-sealed, frozen 'Ready To Heat and Eat' meals used to feed people that can't get out for a nutritious, hot meal.

This new cold storage unit will also help feed those in need during a disaster, regardless of power interruptions, including rolling blackouts and earthquakes.

Partial funding for the project has been provided by Orange County Waste And Recycling, through a grant to Waste Not OC. The group recycles 85 percent of the food collected from participating food donors. This is the most effective food recycling program in the world, according to Learakos.

Michael Collier, the Executive Producer of Television's "The Big Bang Theory," "Mom," and "Two and a Half Men," is producing a pilot episode based on Impact The Change's solar-powered cold storage project.

Centrally located at Anaheim High School, the project will serve as a hub for Orange County food recovery. It will be part of a new network of other green, off the grid solar-powered cold storage containers for Orange County and Southern California.

"We've learned so much from this one," he told Patch. "Interstate batteries provided the batteries, the next generation for converting solar power, and the actual container, controlling airflow. "We've spent $30,000 for this unit in Orange County." With lessons learned in the first unit, he expects the next unit to cost around $100,000 to complete.

Learakos, who also owns "The Katella Grill" in Orange, said the unit could also store COVID-19 vaccine doses to maintain temperature control once they arrive.