City of Concord and Farmers’ Market Partners Debut Solar Walk-In Produce Cooler for Food Bank Gleaning at Todos Santos Plaza

Sustainability coordinators with the City of Concord, market managers from the Pacific Coast Farmers' Market Association (PCFMA), and logistics teams from the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano commissioned a solar-powered walk-in produce refrigeration station on Saturday evening at the Salvio Street service bay of Todos Santos Plaza at 2175 Willow Pass Road in downtown Concord. Built to support the year-round Tuesday Concord Farmers' Market and seasonal Thursday evening market, the cold-chain hub prevents fragile stone fruit, apples, berries, and leafy greens from wilting before food-recovery vans arrive.

At the close of each market day, small family farmers from Brentwood, Winters, and the San Joaquin Valley frequently donate between 1,200 and 1,800 pounds of surplus harvest through the Food Bank's Farm-to-Family gleaning program. Previously, crates of tender spinach, broccoli, and figs stacked on warm concrete sidewalks lost shelf life during afternoon traffic delays. The new 10-foot-by-8-foot insulated stainless-steel walk-in cooler holds 64 stackable harvest totes at a crisp 38 degrees Fahrenheit and 90 percent relative humidity.

Powered by a 4.2-kilowatt rooftop bifacial solar array paired with a phase-change thermal ice bank inside the ceiling evaporator, the zero-emission cooler operates silently without drawing plaza circuit breaker load or burning diesel fuel. Food Bank refrigerated box trucks can then collect palletized produce totes on a flexible schedule for distribution to fourteen Concord and Monument Corridor neighborhood pantries the following morning.

The $68,000 food-recovery cold storage unit was funded through a CalRecycle SB 1383 Edible Food Recovery grant administered by Contra Costa County. Residents can check weekly market hours and CalFresh Market Match benefits on the PCFMA Concord Farmers' Market Portal.