At Daily Bowl, our mission is simple: Preventing food waste. Feeding people. We recover surplus edible food that would otherwise go to waste and deliver it, the same day, to the agencies that feed families and individuals across southern Alameda County and beyond.
Food waste is a serious, visible problem. Hunger is a serious, invisible one. Nearly 40% of edible food is thrown away, while nearly 30% of our neighbors face food insecurity with limited access to fresh, nutritious food. Daily Bowl sits between the two: we work with grocers, wholesalers, farms, institutional kitchens and hospitals to collect what they cannot use, and we deliver it to food pantries, social service agencies, soup kitchens and places of worship that get it onto tables.
Since May 2016 we have recovered and distributed more than 7.5 million pounds of food. We have never leased a warehouse. Daily Bowl is a mobile operation: what we pick up in the morning is on a partner’s shelf by the afternoon.
What we stand for
Dignity. Equity. Stewardship. Collaboration.
Dignity
Food is given freely and received with respect. Our partners never charge for what we deliver, and neither do we.
Equity
Fresh, nutritious food belongs in every neighborhood, not only where it is cheap and easy to deliver.
Stewardship
Food recovery is a climate action. Every pound we keep out of the landfill is methane that never forms.
Collaboration
We are the link between the businesses that have food and the agencies that need it. Neither works without the other.
How we work
From a loading dock to a dinner table, the same day.
1. Rescue
Our refrigerated vans and 16-foot box truck collect surplus food from dozens of businesses every week, on routes across five Bay Area counties.
2. Sort and weigh
Everything is checked, weighed and logged. That is how we know it is 7.5 million pounds, and how our donors get the records California’s SB 1383 asks of them.
3. Deliver
Food reaches our partner agencies within hours. Nothing sits in storage overnight if we can help it, because fresh food has a clock on it.
Who we reach
About 139,000 people a month
Daily Bowl delivers to agencies, and the agencies feed people, so we count carefully rather than claim loosely. Adding up what our partners tell us, the food we deliver reaches roughly this many people every month. A growing share of them are seniors.
South County
40,000
people a month · 38% seniors
Fremont, Union City, Newark
Central County
22,000
people a month · 35% seniors
Hayward, San Lorenzo, San Leandro
North County
12,000
people a month · 18% seniors
Oakland and north
Beyond Alameda County
65,000
people a month · 20% seniors
Contra Costa, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Mateo
Estimates gathered from partner agencies, September 2026. Volunteers give Daily Bowl about 500 hours a month.
Our story
Ten years, one bowl at a time
2015
The idea takes shape over coffee in Oakland, and an October business plan promises that “our doors will be open and a bowl of food provided to anyone who wants it.”
May 11, 2016
The first delivery: 30 pounds of catering food to SAVE, feeding twelve people. A month later, 80 pounds of plums to Centro de Servicios.
June 13, 2016
Daily Bowl is incorporated in California, founded by Paddy Iyer and Lance Nishihira. Public debut at the Union City Human Relations Commission on July 27.
August 9, 2016
The first board meeting, over pizza. Paddy Iyer is elected President, Lance Nishihira Secretary and Ken Pon Treasurer. Ken has been Treasurer ever since.
October 21, 2016
The IRS grants 501(c)(3) status. In December, Kaiser Permanente Fremont makes its first meal donation, the start of our longest partnership.
2017
A $500 van, bought in April, is stolen in June. The community’s fundraiser puts Daily Bowl back on the road by September in a retired mortuary van the volunteers call “the hearse.” In November, Centro de Servicios at 525 H Street becomes our home.
2019
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors commends Daily Bowl. Cumulative food value passes one million dollars. The tagline becomes “Saving Food. Feeding People.”
2020
Kaiser Fremont becomes a zero-food-waste hospital with our help. Our first refrigerated van arrives in February, weeks before the pandemic. When shelter-in-place hits, four volunteers move 86,900 pounds in the first month. In August, “a million pounds in four years.”
2021
Three million pounds in February, four million in June. A refrigerated Ford Transit joins the fleet with Alameda County’s support. Our fifth anniversary is celebrated outdoors at Ardenwood Historic Farm, and Chitra Chandrasekaran becomes our first staff hire beyond the Executive Director.
2022
California’s SB 1383 edible-food rules take effect, and Daily Bowl signs its first written donor agreements. StopWaste honors Daily Bowl and Daylight Foods with its Efficiency Award for excellence in food recovery collaboration.
2023
Five million pounds. Daily Bowl co-founds the California Food Recovery Coalition, is the Oakland A’s Nonprofit Partner of the Game in June, and adopts a new tagline in October: “Preventing Food Waste. Feeding People.”
2024
Named a California Nonprofit of the Year. AB 660, the standardized date-label law we supported, is signed. When a neighboring food-recovery group closes, Daily Bowl takes on much of its agency network rather than let anyone lose supply. Six million pounds in October.
2025
A 16-foot refrigerated box truck joins the fleet, funded by an anonymous foundation, with its wrap paid for by the Fremont Bank Foundation. One truck now covers several donors in a single run. During the fall SNAP disruption, Daily Bowl supplies some partners with more food than any other source.
2026
Seven million pounds in April, 7.5 million in August, and the three biggest months in our history in June, July and August. On September 26 we mark ten years at the Ruggieri Senior Center, the same building that lent us its refrigerators in 2017.
Recognition
Honors along the way
- 2024 California Nonprofit of the Year, honored at the State Capitol
- StopWaste Efficiency Award for Excellence in Food Recovery Collaboration, 2022 (with Daylight Foods)
- Alameda County Board of Supervisors commendation, May 2019
- Alameda County Excellence in Human Relations Award, 2020
- Oakland A’s Nonprofit Partner of the Game, June 2023
- Co-founder of the California Food Recovery Coalition, 2023
Our people
Board of Directors
Lance Nishihira
Co-Founder & Board President
Lance co-founded Daily Bowl in 2016, designed its identity and built its first website, and has served as Board President since 2020. He spent nearly 30 years as a technology designer and executive, and serves on the Union City City Council.
Melissa Wilk
Vice President
Elected as the first woman Auditor-Controller/Clerk-Recorder for Alameda County, Melissa is responsible for the controlling, auditing and reporting of the county’s budget. She holds two master’s degrees and a nonprofit management certificate.
Cindi Napoli-Abella Reiss
Secretary
Cindi has spent twenty-five years in higher education. She serves on boards focused on at-risk youth, the arts, community transformation and educational advocacy, and is a Trustee of the Peralta Community College District.
Ken Pon
Treasurer
A CPA based in San Leandro, Ken has been Daily Bowl’s Treasurer since the first board meeting in 2016. He is a Rotarian, served eight years as a San Leandro Unified School District trustee, and sits on the boards of several nonprofits.
David Bolosan
Director
A chef with over 40 years in the restaurant industry, David led food and beverage innovation and procurement at Pasta Pomodoro and Black Angus before joining Daylight Foods, a premier Northern California produce distributor, as Vice President of Compliance.
Darryl McAllister
Director
Darryl served 37 years in policing, including five as Union City’s Chief of Police, and is nationally recognized for his work in community policing. A founding director of Daily Bowl, he teaches at Chabot College and leads a statewide program for police executives.
Christina Betondo
Director
Staff
Paddy Iyer
Co-Founder & Executive Director
Paddy has led Daily Bowl since its first delivery, forging the relationships between donors and agencies that make the work possible. A former café owner, he lives by Daily Bowl’s exit strategy: “If there is no food waste, there should be no Daily Bowl.”
Chitra Chandrasekaran
Director of Operations
Chitra manages food rescue and distribution logistics, volunteer training and reporting. With more than 15 years of management experience across banking, travel, education and nonprofits, she brings unbounded energy to the daily work of getting food where it needs to go.
Mike Hararah
Food Recovery Specialist
Mary Matsushita
Bookkeeper
Financials
Open books
Daily Bowl is a California 501(c)(3) nonprofit, EIN 81-3341265. Our annual returns to the IRS are public records. In our first three years (2016 through 2018) our revenue was under the threshold for a full return, so we filed the IRS e-Postcard (Form 990-N), which has no document to publish.
| Tax year | Return | Document |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Form 990 | |
| 2023 | Form 990 | |
| 2022 | Form 990 | |
| 2021 | Form 990 | |
| 2020 | Form 990-EZ | View on ProPublica |
| 2019 | Form 990-EZ |
The complete filing history, including financial summaries for every year, is on ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer and the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search.