VIRGINIA BEACH — I often thought about how I could help make the world a better place when I was young, though I didn’t succeed in all ambitions.
But my hope that we can make better choices about how we produce food and value healthy local food systems remains. I’m not without concerns, but my hope is restored when I meet young people who share big ideas that matter – and especially when they have the agency to move those ideas toward real, meaningful action.
One of them is a force to be reckoned with – Natalia de los Ríos, a rising freshman at Harvard University, who at a young age became involved in fighting food insecurity here in Virginia Beach and ending food waste in our Hampton Roads communities.
“It’s amazing when you see people throwing away hundreds of pounds of food right in front of you, and you know there are people who need it,” she said.
She became inspired by meeting others trying to address issues related to food insecurity and the local food systems. And she decided to take on waste with better policy – and by getting to real work.
At 16, she started a campaign to patch a hole in the food system, taking an active role to create an opportunity to help people in need.
She started Food Rescue US – Virginia Beach, which grew to include dozens of food partners, volunteers and social services groups and has provided millions of meals to people who need them.
The goal is to take still edible food which would end up in the landfill and donate it to people who are food insecure.
Importantly, what cannot be donated goes to a compost facility.
In both cases, the food is put to good use. It is either eaten or becomes a good soil amendment, thereby joining the natural way of making even more healthy food.
“Anything that can’t go to people in need needs to go somewhere else before the landfill,” she said.
De los Ríos also participated in a composting nonprofit which I am part of, Drishti, and she worked with other students to pass legislation in Richmond while she was a student at the international baccalaureate program at Princess Anne High School and the environmental studies program at the Brock Environmental Center.
With Food Rescue, she built an effort that involved student volunteers gathering tractor trailers filled with food that might otherwise have been discarded and distributed them in Virginia Beach and Norfolk. Food was provided to local food pantries and others, and some food has been provided directly to the public.
It was especially important during the pandemic, she said, when hunger and food insecurity spiked.
All through it, she worked closely with her mother, Sandra de los Ríos, who will continue to be the “boots on the ground” for the nonprofit here while de los Ríos pursues her studies.
Natalia De los Ríos and classmates mostly involved in environmental studies fought for the passage of two bills, one that protects donors and providers of food that is past its “best-by date” – so long as it is safe – and another providing farmers a tax credit for donating food. The measures passed with bipartisan support in the Virginia General Assembly.
“I’ve always been passionate about the environment,” Natalia de los Ríos, now 18, said when we recently spoke in Pungo.
Next, de los Ríos plans to study environmental science and public policy while also studying sustainable agriculture and food systems at Harvard.
There is more important work ahead, more usable and healthy food to save from the dump, more people to feed and more awareness needed about how the choices we make can change practices and fill bellies.
I’m grateful we are in good hands with a young person who is just beginning her career of helping us all make better, sustainable choices.
Learn about Food Rescue US – Virginia Beach at this link. It can be reached by email via virginiabeach@foodrescue.us, and it is on social media, including Facebook, and Instagram and Threads via @foodrescueus.virginiabeach and on X, formerly Twitter, via @foodrescuevab.
The author, a farmer and consultant, writes about sustainable farming and gardening for The Independent News. Reach him via farmerjohnnewearth@yahoo.com.