a look at how America squanders nearly half of its food

Last week I went around with the nation’s first food recovery group, City Harvest. This New York City group saves 20 million pounds of food annually that would otherwise be shipped to landfills in…New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia! That total would fill 500 tractor trailers full of food, which, if lined up, would stretch more than 5 miles.

As you can see, some of the pickups are pretty New York specific. Another “only in New York” food rescue moment: recovering more than 2000 pounds of melted cheese from the world’s largest fondue Guinness Book stunt at Rockefeller Plaza.

Some City Harvest routes collect bulk produce donations from the Bronx’ Hunt’s Point Market and other locations. During the “retail route” I experienced, I witnessed their typically timely drop offs. We picked up excess bread from upscale grocery stores and restaurants on the Upper East Side and, cruising by Malcolm X Boulevard and the Apollo Theater, dropped it at Harlem’s Metropolitan Baptist Church. There, the giant bags of bread were repackaged into smaller bags for redistribution.

The outing even included a fun exchange of Yankees/Red Sox pleasantries with Bronx-born driver Haisel Vasquez. Being heckled about your favorite, first-place baseball team while recovering food: only in New York!

This past Thursday and Friday, I witnessed stadium food donation in action. The non-profit group Rock and Wrap It Up! facilitated both events, a Mets game and a Bob Dylan concert. 

For the concert, Rock and Wrap It Up! honchos Syd and Diane Mandelbaum took me from a Long Island Rail Road stop to Jones Beach Theater, where the group has rescued food since 1991. The non-profit has agreements with some venues like Jones Beach, but the original model is having bands make food donation a part of their contracts.

At the show, I donned my new Rock and Wrap it Up! t-shirt and briefly manned the information booth that aids the group’s profile and coffers. After taking in some of the concert with other volunteers, we went backstage at 9:15 p.m. to collect the excess food. 

I wasn’t aware of just how many stage hands, crew and hangers on eat backstage–Syd estimated it was usually 300 to 400 people. Also, I didn’t know that the caterer serves three-to-four meals during the day, depending when the band arrives. Add that up and you’ll have a healthy amount of excess. We took what the caterers wrapped for us–trays of steak, chicken, cut fruit, lentil salad and a box of pastries that elicited an “ooh” from the volunteers. We left a bag of potato salad behind because the group doesn’t take mayonnaise items or fish, a result of not having a refrigerated truck.

“That’s a really great pickup,” a veteran volunteer noted, as I stared longingly at the tantalizing Rice Krispie treat donation. 

On the other hand, the concession stand donations were unusually light. There was only one tray of chicken breasts, hamburgers and hot dogs. Why so little food? Syd’s prediction proved correct: “It’s a stoned crowd, they’ll eat a lot when the munchies kick in.”

We loaded the haul, about 100 pounds of food in two, large plastic trunks, into the Mandelbaum’s Excursion and headed for the donation site–a group home for families with HIV. We brought the food into the non-descript brick bungalow with spoke with the home’s director, Darryl Smith. We stacked the food onto the kitchen counter as Smith told me most of the donations would go to a storage freezer and be used as needed.

On the train back to the city, I wondered to myself: Why don’t all concert venues donate their food? The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.

No I’m not writing about the new iPhone (Although my tech people tell me that by including that word I may attract traffic). The Apple I’m talking about is the little hamlet called New York City.  

I’m headed to the Big Apple to observe a few food recovery operations. Thursday and Friday nights I’ll see how Rock and Wrap it Up! collects excess food from stadium events. I’ll attend a Mets game at Shea Stadium and then a Bob Dylan show at Jones Beach Theater.

I’m curious to see how the collection works and how much concession food is prepared but not sold. It will also be interesting to see how much food remains after a post-concert, backstage buffet.

Between those events, I’m making a food recovery run with City Harvest. Started in 1982, it is the oldest food recovery operation in the country. I’ll be tagging along on the Upper West Side route. Fancy.

I’ll have a report early next week…