Bay Area

White Pony Express Receives $175K Grant to Fight Hunger and Food Waste

White Pony Express is the recipient of a $175,000 grant from the Anthem Blue Cross Foundation aimed at helping reduce the East Bay’s food waste and food-insecure people. The grant will expand the White Pony Express Food Rescue Program, which gathers surplus fresh food from grocers, retailers, farmers markets, restaurants and wholesalers and deliver it to organizations serving people in need. Eve Birge, CEO of White Pony Express, said that through this grant, the Anthem Blue Cross Foundation is not only facilitating nutrition security, but also preventing tons of good food from going to landfill.

Published

2 years ago

August 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Photo credited to White Pony Express.

By Kathy Chouteau

The Richmond Standard

White Pony Express is the recipient of a $175,000 grant from the Anthem Blue Cross Foundation aimed at helping reduce the East Bay’s food waste and food-insecure people.

The grant will expand the White Pony Express Food Rescue Program, which gathers surplus fresh food from grocers, retailers, farmers markets, restaurants and wholesalers and deliver it to organizations serving people in need.

Eve Birge, CEO of White Pony Express, said that through this grant, the Anthem Blue Cross Foundation is not only facilitating nutrition security, but also preventing tons of good food from going to landfill.

She said through this partnership, “we are helping to break the cycle of institutionalized inequity, malnutrition and associated chronic health and psychological issues by providing nutritious, fresh food, free of charge, with consistency.”

White Pony Express said that food insecurity affects more than 33 million people nationwide and increases the risk for diabetes and high blood pressure. While numerous East Bay residents suffer from hunger daily, grocers, restaurants and other food sellers discard thousands of pounds of high-quality food because of artificially created sell-by dates, excess inventory, or due to it not meeting presentation standards.

Dr. David Pryor, medical director of Anthem Blue Cross in California, said they are thrilled to be working with a like-minded partner. He added that they believe food is medicine and increasing access to nutritious foods is one way to help improve the overall health and wellbeing of individuals.

White Pony Express’ Food Rescue Program operates every day of the week throughout the year and rescues approximately 15,000 pounds of high quality, largely perishable food daily from various food outlets to help those in need. Learn more here.

The Anthem Blue Cross Foundation is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Association and a philanthropic arm of the Elevance Health Foundation.