White Pony Express Moves From Walnut Creek To Concord

By Tony Hicks –

Food recovery organization White Pony Express moved into new, bigger digs earlier this summer and celebrated the move from Walnut Creek to Concord.

Now in Garaventa Business Park north of Highway 4, the move gives the 10-year-old nonprofit a better site to process donations, including five times the freezer capability, more rack space, and forklift access through rolling doors. There are also more amenities for workers and volunteers.

The move is already paying off.

“We’ve have been growing a lot,” said Eve Birge, executive director of White Pony Express. “But when we moved here, we’ve already been able to move some of the nonprofit partners that were on our wait list. We’ve already been able to move several onto our distribution schedule and recover more food, so more fresh perishable food because we have all this refrigerator space.”

Whereas food banks deal mostly in canned food, White Pony Express is about moving perishables quickly. It collects food from stores and restaurants every day (except Christmas), cleans it, re-packages it, and gets it back out the door to the Contra Costa County groups who need it.

The outfit’s reputation for efficiency has traveled beyond Contra Costa County, so much so that then-vice chairman of the House Hunger Caucus, Congressman Jim McGovern, visited from Washington D.C. two years ago to collect ideas “to see if they’re nationally applicable,” he said at the time.

“This is such an incredible organization,” said Walnut Creek Mayor Loella Haskew. “It isn’t that old and look how they’ve blossomed and how many people they’ve helped. We’re a little sad that they’ve moved away from Walnut Creek, but we’re very glad they have this marvelous place.”

“We know there are a whole lot of people that need extra help with food and clothing and this organization is here and it’s impressive.”

White Pony Express collects food daily from 75 outlets like Starbucks, Trader’s Joe’s, Whole Foods, Sprouts and various farmer’s markets and restaurants. The food is still fresh but usually won’t stay in a store or restaurant past one day.

Employees and volunteers sort the food based on what destinations ask for, what’s culturally appropriate, and what people will eat. From there, it goes to 98 community-based organizations, including schools.

The extra freezer space now means the group can collect more frozen and fresh food requiring refrigeration, said White Pony Express spokesperson Steve Spraitzar.

“We brought food in and would have to send it out the same day,” Spraitzar said. “Much of what we had we couldn’t store without being spoiled. We wanted to grow. We’re hoping to expand our services.”

The group started with four volunteers moving food in car trunks, to 700 volunteers and 17 to 19 paid staffers, said Becky Coburn, the group’s director of administration. White Pony Express now provides 125,000 meals annually.

The food recovery business is growing, thanks to California’s Senate Bill 1383, which took effect two years ago. The law requires commercial edible food generators to have agreements with food recovery organizations.

It also mandates no less than 20 percent of edible food currently disposed of will be recovered for human consumption by 2025. The law isn’t just for hungry people: it’s also meant to address greenhouse gases generated by food in landfills.

White Pony Express also distributes clothes, shoes, books, and toys at events.

“I am so delighted that White Pony Express is located here,” said Concord Vice Mayor Carlyn Obringer. “A few years ago, I had the chance to attend a program at Mount Diablo High School where Eve was speaking and talking about the partnerships, especially during COVID, to help feed those in need.”

“And also, we want to reduce carbon emissions,” Obringer said. “We don’t want to be throwing food into the landfills.”
Obringer said it made sense that White Pony Express moved to Concord.

“We are the biggest city; we are the most diverse city in Contra Costa County,” Obringer said. “We do have one of two of the homeless shelters in the county. We do have a lot of people who have need in the community. I am over the Moon and I look forward to many years of great partnership helping to serve the people of Contra Costa together,” Obringer said.