This is A Sustainable Mind, episode 11.

This is a sustainable mind podcast where we delve into the minds behind today's most impactful

environmental campaigns, organizations, and startups, inspiring the environmental changemakers

of tomorrow. I'm your host, Marjorie Alexander. Today I'm just absolutely bursting at the

seams to welcome to the show, Jordan Figurito. Jordan is a zero-waste superhero. During the day,

he works for Castro Valley Sanitary District, and every other waking hour, well, just about, he dedicates to connecting with others in his local community in Oakland, California, and across the globe to end food waste.

His organization is called End Food Waste, and he is the brains behind the ugly fruit and veg campaign.

Jordan, welcome to the show. Thanks for having

me. It's great to be here. I'm happy to share and talk about what's going on with food waste.

Absolutely. Well, before we jump into that, because I'm super excited, I'm like, buzzing right now.

I want you to tell us a bit about how nature or the environment or sustainability played a part in your childhood and what really brought you to this campaign right now. So bring us from childhood up till current day. So yeah, it's kind of interesting. I didn't grow up in a household where it was sort of the, you know, worshipping or, you know, appreciating the environment and nature,

I kind of found my way there. I mean, I always sort of knew that wasting things was bad.

You know, my mom was kind of the typical single-divorced parent trying to overcompensate

buying too much stuff. And so I would tell her, no, don't buy this, don't buy that, don't worry about it. So in some respects, I had the, I don't want to waste ethic as a kid,

but really the environment and appreciating produce didn't really come into play until later.

Yeah. You work for a sanitary district. So tell us a little bit about what you see at your job every day and what was really the motivation for both the end food waste organization and also the ugly fruit and veg campaign.

Right. Okay. And so I guess the upbringing part too is that I always wanted to find a job or passion or a profession that sort of gave back or

served the community. I think that was just instilled in me from my mom and doing something,

you know, important work that contributes. So it took me a while to get to where I am in my day

job. I was in and out of college and maybe 10 years that took me to

finally get a bachelor's degree. And then I knew I wanted to be in public service. So I got a

public administration master's degree after that. Ended up in an internship that worked on

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