- December 29, 2011
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City Harvest, a nonprofit alleviating hunger in New York City, is on a rescue mission. What is the organization rescuing? Well, millions of pounds of food.
Rescuing Food Waste to Alleviate Hunger
“Rescuing” food, sometimes called “recovering” food, means finding and using food that would otherwise be thrown out. Food is recovered from restaurants, grocers, corporate cafeterias, manufacturers, and farms. The food is edible, but usually can’t be sold, such as day-old bread or bruised fruit. In other words, perfectly nutritious food that would otherwise be wasted.
According to an article in the New York Times, “a quarter to half of all food produced in the United States goes uneaten — left in fields, spoiled in transport, thrown out at the grocery store, scraped into the garbage or forgotten until it spoils.“
That’s a lot of waste. But it’s also an opportunity to turn that waste into feeding the hungry.
City Harvest is Rescuing Truckloads of Food
Image courtesy City Harvest
City Harvest has been giving food to those in need for more than 25 years. This year alone, they’ve rescued more than 30 million pounds of food. Once rescued, food is delivered to soup kitchens, food pantries, homeless shelters, AIDS care providers, senior centers, and children’s daycare centers that serve the hungry in New York City.
Some remarkable facts about the organization:
- 91 cents of every $1 raised goes directly to food programs
- City Harvest rates 4 stars (the highest rating) on CharityNavigator
- Food is supplied to over 600 NYC soup kitchens and food pantries
- Food is delivered 24 hrs/day, 7 days/week
- More than 2,300 food businesses donate food
- They have more than 100 staff members and 2,200 volunteers deliver food on 17 hybrid trucks and 3 big tricycles
In addition to emergency food assistance, City Harvest provides nutrition education and participates in advocacy to alleviate and prevent hunger.
Discover more about Food Rescue & City Harvest
Intrigued by the idea of food rescue and how you can help? Check out American Wasteland—a book about food waste in America that has useful tips for how to cut back on food waste.
Check out City Harvest:
cityharvest.org
Follow @CityHarvest on Twitter
Like City Harvest on Facebook
Banner image via leadenhall under Creative Commons license
