Here’s the challenging aspect of battling food insecurity: There are plenty of ways society can make a difference – and at little cost. It often just takes some out-of-the-box thinking to discover and implement them.
Table to Table, New Jersey’s first and largest food rescue organization, is offering a blueprint on how to do just that.
Table to Table and the Ridgewood Public School District have joined forces to reduce food waste and feed those in need for Bergen County’s first district-wide food rescue relationship.
Interested in starting program?
Readers interested in creating a Table-to-Table partnership with a school district should reach out to Network Director Christine Zeni at [email protected].
Table to Table operates in five counties: Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris and Passaic.
As part of the collaboration, nourishing surplus meals and snacks from seven school cafeterias are collected from each of the schools by Pomptonian Food Service, the district’s food service company, rescued by local volunteers, and delivered to Ridgecrest Senior Apartments through Table to Table’s I-Rescue App.
A total of 132 food rescues have been completed from October to the present, garnering more than 10,074 pounds of food.
Table to Table Executive Director Heather Thompson obviously was thrilled.
“The impact that the Ridgewood School District is making for our neighbors in need as well as our planet is nothing short of amazing,” she said. “We are overjoyed to be joining forces.”
Thompson said nearly 3 billion pounds of food is wasted annually in New Jersey while almost 1.1 million people – including 270,000 children – face hunger.
“Table to Table offers a solution that keeps good, nourishing food out of landfills, and ensures it reaches the dinner tables of families, senior citizens and other folks facing food insecurity,” she said. “We are thankful that the Ridgewood Schools are joining us in our mission.”
There are plenty of organizations working to combat food insecurity: See these efforts from DoorDash, Valley Bank, Provident Bank and Jon Bon Jovi.
HMH announced an incredible $7 million pledge. And the NJ EDA has some wonderful programs, too.
Ridgewood, however, is taking in past an assistance check (certainly welcome) and making it a community initiative. (There is a program in Bloomfield, too.)
Ridgewood Superintendent Mark Schwarz said the district’s connection with Table to Table is a vital part of our commitment to a greener, more supportive Ridgewood.
“We are proud of this shared mission to eliminate food waste in our cafeterias and redirect those resources to those in need,” he said. “It’s a powerful lesson for our students: when we work together, we can turn a logistical challenge into a community solution.”
Julie Yohana, the supervisor of transportation and operations, said the impact of the program can be even greater.
“This initiative, beginning with our cafeteria surplus, is designed to ignite a spark in the Ridgewood Public Schools community, driving us to discover new, creative ways to fight food insecurity,” she said.
Like we said. There are solutions out there, society just needs to find them.
