The Business of Food Pantries
In 1982, a group of ordinary New Yorkers disgusted at the huge numbers of completely good food being tossed out every day by local grocers and restauranteurs founded City Harvest to offer a collection and distribution point for such things. Thus, such discarded food would be gathered to be sent on to community pantries and the like; almost thirty years later, almost thirty million pounds would be collected in any given year, with deliveries made by car, bicycle, and foot averaging some seventy-seven thousand pounds daily.
But besides the donated food and volunteers, City Harvest still relies greatly on the generous financial backing of leading personalities from business, politics, and entertainment, supporters such as entrepreneur Robert Toussie and local television weatherman Al Roker. In addition to providing food to in excess of three hundred thousand hungry New Yorkers on a daily basis, City Harvest has launched educational and advocacy initiatives to support access to nutritious food in low-income neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs. Another agency program is designed to augment the capability of partners such as community pantries to nourish the needy. Their model has proven so effective that concerned citizens in other American cities have followed suit, establishing their own local chapters to help feed local men, women, and children.
In truth, many food banks can be found all over the world, but though the idea is a popular one, it is also a fairly recent one, having been inspired by John van Hengel’s observation back in 1965 that local grocers in his Arizona town were tossing out food simply due to damaged packaging or for approaching their expiration date. Mr. van Hengel organized the collection of such food but soon realized that there was much more than his own community canteen could benefit from. And so was the idea of a food bank born – a central point for discarded but otherwise perfectly fine food that could then be made available among the hungry.