Community Corner

Food Rescue Efforts on a Roll in Westchester

40 percent of the food prepped for Americans is wasted. There's a forum Monday about donating instead of throwing it away.

Many local groups across the country recover all that edible food prepared for Americans that would be dumped—and distribute it instead to those in need through soup kitchens and the like. 

In most cases the "rescued" food is in great shape like bagged lettuce past its "sell-by" date.

Now the Food Bank for Westchester and the county government are getting involved locally. 

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"If we have the opportunity to alleviate hunger by working together in cooperation to reduce waste, to create systems to bring food that's not used to soup kitchens and that kind of thing, that's what we should should be partnering to do," said Ellen Lynch, executive director of the Food Bank for Westchester.

County Executive Rob Astorino launched the initiative in his state-of-the-county speech this spring. 

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On Aug. 12 they're holding their second forum to talk with large, institutional food providers about ways to promote, support, join efforts to divert  untouched, usable leftover food away from their waste stream to help feed the hungry.  

The forum, Lynch said, is an effort initiated by the county to help grow awareness about the issue of hunger and also about the issue of waste. "Everybody comes together to talk about what their situations are, it's a fabulous opportunity to brainstorm solutions."

The organizers and their potential partners have a strong role model in southern Westchester: County Harvest.  

Missy Palmisciano, its founder, started it when she noticed how much food was being thrown away at her children's elementary school.

She pulled in the needed pieces, including the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, the Pelham school district and the Community Service Association  for whom she had done volunteer work. 

Three years and 1 million pounds of rescued food later,Palmisciano is one of three Pelham Person of the Year winners for outstanding volunteer work. She'll be honored in October by the Pelham Civic Association.

Local partners range from Hilltop Hanover Farm in Yorktown to the Bonnie Briar Country Club in Larchmont. Its newest partners include Trader Joe's in Scarsdale and the Restaurant Depot in Port Chester. County Harvest's long list of partners can be found here.

Donna Greene, deputy communications director for the county, said she did not think County Harvest was directly involved in Monday's event. "However, it is always important to have other fine agencies doing similar things," Greene said.

The county's food rescue forum will start at 10 a.m. at the county’s Household Material Recovery Facility located on the Grasslands Campus, 15 Woods Road, Valhalla. About 50 people from businesses, hotels, houses of worship, school districts, hospitals and other large food service providers are expected to attend. 

 The program will focus primarily on food rescue—supporting the distribution of untouched, fresh or packaged food to local houses of worship, food pantries and soup kitchens. 

"How do we reduce the waste, how do we make the most of what we have, how do we get food to the people instead of just throwing it away?" Lynch said those are practical questions for the participants to tackle.

The Food Rescue Forum is a cooperative effort with the Food Bank for Westchester and Rock and Wrap It Up! Inc. Rock and Wrap It Up! is an anti-poverty think tank. Using greening tactics, they recover food and other assets to agencies fighting poverty, increasing their operating budgets.

"I think that these are great opportunities to bring people together that have it in their power to collect the food where it's not being used and is going to be wasted and bringing it to people who need it," Lynch said.


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