Our Team
Steering Committee
Will Dittmar, Chair
Will Dittmar is Chair of the California Food Recovery Coalition and CEO of ExtraFood, a Bay Area nonprofit working to end hunger and wasted food. Under his leadership, ExtraFood has grown into one of the region’s largest food recovery organizations, recovering millions of pounds of fresh food annually.
Will brings experience across the nonprofit and government sectors, building partnerships and advancing solutions at the intersection of food insecurity, food waste, and climate change. As Chair of CFRC, he works to strengthen California’s food recovery sector through collaboration, advocacy, and public policy.
Eve Nereem Birge, Vice Chair
Eve serves as CEO at White Pony Express (WPE), the food recovery organization on a mission to end food insecurity by delivering the abundance to those in need—with love. Eve has over 25 years’ experience developing policies and administering programs that protect and advance the public health, education, and rights of people who are underserved. She serves on several Boards including the Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster and the Advisory Council for United Way Bay Area.
David Hott
With an educational background in Collaborative Health and Human Services from the University of California Monterey Bay, David brings extensive work experience in food recovery and corporate leadership. David serves as the CEO at Loaves and Fishes in Silicon Valley, the home of the A La Carte Program. He holds a Board Position on NCRA and is certified as a Practitioner in Zero Waste Principles and Practices from SWANA. David is a member of the Edible Food Recovery Technical Council Exec. Committee of CRRA.
Paddy Iyer
Paddy is the Executive Director of Daily Bowl. Food waste is an issue that Paddy is passionate about, and as such he lives every day to help reduce food waste, connecting with agencies feeding the food insecure people, and completing the circle.
Ewell Sterner
Ewell Sterner is a veteran hospitality executive with 35 + years of experience managing hotels, resorts, and convention centers. In 2008, he founded Hunger at Home based on the principle that hunger is a logistical challenge rather than a result of food scarcity. Today, Hunger at Home is a leading food recovery nonprofit in Silicon Valley, having diverted over 17 million pounds of food from landfills.
The organization operates several programs to rescue edible food for families, seniors, veterans, and students. By bridging the gap between hospitality businesses, food distributors, and a network of 47 nonprofit partners, Ewell’s work maximizes community impact and expands the organization’s geographic reach. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he launched a weekly drive-through distribution program that now serves over 52,000 people annually.
Alexandra White
Alexandra White is a Co‑founder and the Executive Director of ProduceGood, a San Diego nonprofit that has grown from recovering 6,000 pounds of surplus produce in 2014 to over 400,000 pounds annually. With cross-sector experience spanning global development, technology, education, and food systems, Alex brings a powerful, systems‑based approach to food recovery that aligns community needs, equity, and climate justice. Dedicated to amplifying the voices of small food recovery organizations and the communities they serve, she is focused on systemic food policy change to advance food justice across California.
Organizational Support
Julie Leftwich, Head of Organizational Development
Julie is an attorney who’s dedicated her professional life to social and criminal justice reform. She’s the former Legal Director of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, where, for more than 20 years, she helped draft, enact and defend hundreds of pioneering state and local gun safety laws. During her tenure at the Law Center, she helped lead a California coalition of gun violence prevention organizations statewide, and organize a similar coalition nationwide.
In addition to her support for the invaluable work and development of CFRC, Julie currently serves on the Berkeley Police Accountability Board, where she Chairs the Policy Subcommittee, and the Alameda County Mental Health Advisory Board, where she Co-Chairs the Criminal Justice Committee.
Julie Arenz, Policy Director
Julie Arenz is the Sustainability Associate at Edgar and Associates and acts as Head of Policy for CFRC. Julie has over 10 years of experience working in sustainability policy, education and outreach, GHG mitigation/ Climate Action Plans, CalRecycle Annual Reporting, grant and project management, and edible food recovery capacity reports and implementation. Julie possesses the technical skills to analyze data and research to advise on the legislative process to make effective change for the Edible Food Recovery Industry.
Monica White, Policy Director
Monica is the Sustainability Manger at Edgar and Associates and acts as Advisor to the Head of Policy. She has over 16 years of experience working in the sustainability arena where she has led teams in developing sustainability programs for a range of companies and sectors. Notably she is assistant the development of zero waste programs, SB 1383 compliance plans, and cutting-edge approaches to the management of edible food.
Advisory Panel
Julia Heath
Julia is a Recycling Program Manager with the City of Berkeley formerly, 6 years with the City of Oakland’s Recycling Program and 3 years with the City of Arcata’s Environmental Services Division. Julia is passionate about source reduction over proper sorting. Julia is currently prioritizing implementing Berkeley’s Single Use Foodware Ordinance and supporting SB-54 rulemaking, specifically supporting reuse requirements. She is also working in partnership to build a California Food Recovery Coalition to support legislation for sustainable funding for food recovery organizations.
Robin Martin
Robin started the award-winning A La Carte pilot program, bringing 20 years of experience in public health and community team building. She founded the Silicon Valley Food Recovery Council, the Santa Clara County Food Recovery Program on behalf of all jurisdictions in Santa Clara County, and authored numerous seminal reports. She speaks publicly on a regular basis about the importance of safe and nutritious food recovery and waste prevention.
Cassie Bartholomew
Cassie is a Program Manager at StopWaste. Cassie has over 20 years of experience in developing and implementing programs in non-profit government sectors. In her role as the SB 1383 Food Recovery Lead, she’s developed networks for Food Recovery Organizations, facilitated the Edible Food Recovery Capacity Planning process for Alameda County, and developed communication, education and outreach tools.
Nick Lapis
Nick is the Director of Advocacy for Californians Against Waste and has been with the organization since 2007. In that time, Nick has led CAW’s team of advocates in campaigns to pass groundbreaking laws that have positioned California as a global leader in reducing and recovering waste. By building strong coalitions, he has helped enact policies to reduce the impacts of climate change, recover organic wastes, reduce plastic pollution, and develop sustainable markets for recyclable materials. Nick also engages in policy development and research, representing CAW on a variety of boards, commissions, taskforces, and coalitions.