VC Star
Nov. 25th
By David Goldstein
Thanksgiving is a holiday built around abundance — too often more abundance than we know what to do with. The turkey is bigger than we need, the leftovers don’t quite fit in the fridge and backyard fruit trees ripen all at once, just as we’re juggling guests and travel plans.
But this season also offers an opportunity to turn that surplus into something useful for our community. Whether it’s the oil from a deep-fried turkey or the tangerines dropping from a backyard tree, Ventura County has practical, local ways to ensure Thanksgiving excess doesn’t go to waste.
Let’s start with that turkey fryer. The crackle of a bird hitting hot oil or the sizzle of empanadas sautéing in a pan may be a Thanksgiving tradition, but the leftover grease can be a messy puzzle. Fat, oil and grease cool into stubborn blockages in sewer lines. These clogs cause costly backups for homeowners and public agencies.
Food Share, the regional food bank for Ventura County, provides 17 million meals to 250,000 people each year.
Fortunately, recycling is easy and strangely satisfying when you learn where your grease ends up. Coastal Byproducts, a company that collects restaurant and school cooking oil throughout the region, delivers it to a biodiesel manufacturer in Los Angeles.
That biodiesel goes right back onto local farms, powering equipment, including tractors. If you happen to smell a hint of french fries while visiting a farm next month, you may be standing next to biodiesel made from someone’s Thanksgiving cleanup.
Restaurants and schools can arrange free pickups from Coastal Byproducts if they have at least 20 gallons. The rest of us, who may have only a few quarts, can drop off grease for free at Coastal Byproducts’ site at 1891 Sunkist Circle in Oxnard, open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with no appointment necessary.
If that’s not convenient, some restaurants are willing to help. Many have 55- or 90-gallon black drums in the same enclosures as their trash containers. These drums aren’t for “trap cleanout,” which restaurants must pay for, but for cooking oil, which companies like Coastal Byproducts collect at no charge. Asking the manager politely may get you access to a responsible disposal option.
For those who truly can’t recycle, small amounts can be hardened in a can — kitty litter helps — and placed in the trash. This is legal for households, though not for restaurants. Still, recycling remains the best choice, and Thanksgiving is one of the biggest opportunities of the year to do it.
Food, of course, is the other form of surplus many households face this season. Ventura County is full of fruit trees heavy with citrus, avocados and other produce often more than homeowners can reasonably pick. Food Forward, a regional nonprofit, turns this backyard abundance into nourishment for people who need it.
Their Backyard Harvest program coordinators for Ventura County, Jess Anetsberger and Chris Wehling, organize volunteer pickers for homes registered on the Food Forward website. The requirements are simple: Upload photos showing a safe picking area and ensure the amount of fruit is sufficient to meet minimums.
The minimum amount is the amount it would take a typical person to pick in 90 minutes. Note that volunteers can harvest only up to 15 feet; trees and produce can be higher, but 15 feet is the limit of their poles.
If your tree doesn’t have enough fruit to justify sending a volunteer team, Food Forward’s DIY Harvest option is another option.
Contact the Backyard Harvest staff, and they will assign a partner organization to receive your harvest. Then, pick the fruit yourself, and drop it off at the partner organization. In some cases, if a volunteer is already nearby, they may even pick up your donation.
Information about backyard harvests, DIY options or volunteering is available at foodforward.org.
Finally, if you are grateful that you had enough at your own table this Thanksgiving, you can extend that gratitude to neighbors through Food Share, Ventura County’s regional food bank.
More than 4,400 volunteers help Food Share provide over 17 million meals to 250,000 people each year, according to Jennifer Caldwell, chief development officer. To learn more about volunteering, call Jessica Hug, director of community engagement, at 805-983-7100, ext. 114.
Thanksgiving reminds us to be grateful. But it also gives us a chance to turn that gratitude into action whether by keeping grease out of sewers, providing biodiesel to tractors or keeping fresh produce flowing to hungry people who need it.
