Pacific Gas and Electric Company Helps Loaves and Fishes Go Green

On April 30, 2010 Loaves and Fishes of Contra Costa received a grant for $2,000 from Pacific Gas and Electric Company. The grant was made specifically to fund our program to green our operation footprint and improve energy efficiency in our Pittsburg catering kitchen. The grant will go towards the purchase of a new energy efficient rollup door for the kitchen, which will keep cold air and dust out of the kitchen during the winter and with weatherized stripping, keep warm air out of the kitchen in the summer months.

Since January, PG&E has been very active in helping Loaves and Fishes to green its operation. “Greening of an operation is something that you take in baby steps,” noted Michael Baroman-Coggins, Loaves& Fishes executive director, “We started with the areas that needed immediate improvement, and we will continue to look throughout the operation for ways to become more energy efficient and greener.”

In January, Loaves and Fishes invited PG&E to do an energy audit of our kitchen. With PG&E’s help we were introduced to the Smart Lights Program, which helped LFCC to replace old lighting with more energy efficient lighting at a subsidized rate from PG&E.  PG&E also introduced us to Fisher/Nickel, Inc., a firm that is subsidized by PG&E to look at commercial kitchens and evaluate energy savings. We were given new water-flow nozzles for our dish room, told about equipment that might need to be replaced and recommended Energy Star efficient equipment, that if purchased, would also be eligible for PG&E rebates.

In addition to the Smart Lights, PG&E installed Smart Meters and Smart Thermostats in our kitchen. They also installed door closers and other energy saving devices to our walk-in refrigeration units.

PG&E is also investing volunteer hours into our operation, with staff members volunteering at our kitchen and dining sites throughout Contra Costa. Loaves & Fishes is grateful to PG&E for its continued help and we hope to turn this into a long and green relationship for both of us.