City Harvest (organization)
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| Founded | 1982 |
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| Focus | Hunger, Food Rescue, Nutrition, Education |
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| Website | Official website |
City Harvest, 501(c)3 nonprofit, operates in New York City through food rescue and distribution, and education. Since 1982, City Harvest has rescued more than 500 million pounds of food. On average, City Harvest rescues some 150,000 pounds of food each day, with more than 50% of rescued food being fresh produce. City Harvest provides food to 500 community food programs throughout New York City.
Founded in 1982, City Harvest is the world’s first food rescue organization. Its founders included Helen verDuin Palit and Harley Brooke-Hitching (founding Chair) and Peter Schmidt (founding Board Member). To date, the organization has rescued and delivered more than 465 million pounds of food. The operation utilizes 21 refrigerated trucks, over 150 employees, and more than 2,200 volunteers. In the fiscal year of 2016, City Harvest will collect 55 million pounds of food. Fresh fruits and vegetables comprised 60% of rescued food. In 2001, City Harvest became a member of the national network of food banks and food rescue organizations, Feeding America, then called America’s Second Harvest.
City Harvest collects excess food from restaurants, grocers, bakeries, Greenmarkets, corporate cafeterias, manufacturers, and farms. This food is then delivered free of charge to community food programs throughout New York City. Each year, City Harvest helps feed the more than 1 million New Yorkers that face hunger. For many of City Harvest's clients, healthy food is unavailable or too costly. In turn, diseases related to poor nutrition – including diabetes and heart disease – tend to be concentrated where demand for emergency food is greatest. City Harvest developed Healthy Neighborhoods programs to respond to the need for emergency food, improve access to fruits and vegetables for residents of low-income communities, and provide nutrition education.
More than 75 food industry professionals from New York City comprise City Harvest’s Food Council, which helps the organization by donating food, raising funds and heightening visibility. Founding Food Council members include: Eric Ripert,Dana Cowin,Michael Lomonaco,Danny Meyer,Drew Nieporent, Tracy Nieporent, and Gus Theodoro. The Food Council has since expanded to include Ron Ben-Israel,David Chang,Tom Colicchio,Marc Murphy,Marcus Samuelsson,Gail Simmons, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
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