City Harvest
Katie Lee Joel
City Harvest is a non-profit organization that rescues millions of pounds of food from restaurants, grocery stores, greenmarkets, and all segments of the food industry to feed the estimated 1.6 million New Yorkers who go hungry. Founded in 1981, City Harvest is the world’s oldest, and New York’s only, food rescue program, with a mission to “end hunger in communities throughout New York City.” City Harvest not only rescues and distributes food, but also has educational programs most recently, “Harvesting for Healthier Living.” Olive and Peach sat down with City Harvest’s Jessica Brown and Elizabeth Vukovic Gartlan to learn more about it.
What is the mission of Harvesting for Healthier Living?
The program was started with HarvestWorks, which takes a holistic view of food and how we feed people. There is a great deal of beautiful, high-quality produce right here in New York State and there is a devastating lack of fresh produce in certain low-income neighborhoods. We recently learned that there are so many small farms that are in danger in our own state. Thousands of pounds of fresh produce were going to waste because the farmers couldn’t afford their costs. HarvestWorks links the New York state farmer to the low-income family. The produce is gotten three different ways – pay a farmer to pick unmarketable produce; contracting a farmer for wholesale costs; and community-supported agriculture.
What is community-supported agriculture (CSA)?
People go in together to buy shares of a farm. You pay a certain amount at the beginning of the year, which is your portion of the farm. It’s a great way to become a part of something and to know where your food comes from. In New York City, the farmer brings the produce to a pick-up spot. City harvest works with an organization called Just Food, which helps organize CSA all over New York. They set us up with the South Bronx CSA and offers subsidized shares. City Harvest bought ten shares for ten families in the South Bronx. With that produce, we also teach them how to use it and how to incorporate healthy eating on a small budget.
Why is the support of local agriculture important to City Harvest?
City Harvest brings in over 13 million pounds of produce a year from food rescue and farms all over the country. Knowing that there is produce upstate that is being plowed under, it was a natural progression. Our mission is to feed people in New York City, but if we can do that to benefit small farmers in our own state, it is a win-win. We actually ended up getting this tremendous quantity of good food.
When did the program begin?
Last year we purchased ten shares for people in the Ravenswood Senior Center in Astoria. We had a great response from the people who participated last year. Their most common compliment was they had never tasted produce with such quality. The South Bronx program started this summer. The people are thrilled with the produce – someone even cried. This produce just doesn’t exist. There is a stereotype that these people want to be eating junk and fast food, but in our experience it’s really the access to produce that’s the biggest challenge. All of a sudden, when you’re providing this beautiful produce, they’re coming up with different ideas. The energy level just rises and everybody really realizes what they can do.
How did you choose the ten families?
We left it up to the case managers at the United Bronx Parents to decide who they felt would be most interested and committed. Everyone who participates needs to have a kitchen so they can prepare the produce that’s coming in.
What skills are taught in the Nutrition and Cooking Education class?
We basically serve a whole variety of people, all low-income, some are recovering substance abusers, and some are struggling with diseases like HIV/AIDS or diabetes. The South Bronx has the highest rate in New York City for diabetes, obesity, and heart disease – all nutrition-related diseases. Overall, fresh produce is difficult to find and hard to access. Many times it’s not good quality and it’s expensive, but fresh produce is necessary for the management of these diseases. It’s a struggle for many families to eat nutritiously. We’re providing the produce, and at the same time we’re working with a volunteer professional chef and nutritionist to provide a six-week curriculum, taught at the distribution points. Everybody has their own cutting boards, knives, etc. We don’t know what produce we’ll be getting until 24 hours prior to class and it’s up to the chef to make the recipes – all healthy, taste delicious, and with ingredients they can find in their neighborhood that are simple and low cost. Cooking is a vehicle for nutrition education. We address the issues of HIV, high cholesterol, and diabetic nutritional needs. By the time they leave class, they have a solid understanding of their disease, how to manage it, and how to read a nutrition label.
What sorts of harvests are the families receiving?
It changes every week. Sometimes for three or four weeks, it will be the same vegetable. A lot of kale, lettuces, garlic greens, tomatoes, squash, eggplant, and beets – everything is very seasonal. The variety of food that is grown in the region is great.
How long does the program last?
The program is 26 weeks. The CSA portion will end because the harvest will be over. We’ll start again next year and will run seasonally for at least five years. Our plan is also to train the ten participants to be peer educators so they can go out and train with the same idea.
What is your advice to people in other parts of the country who want to develop a similar program?
There are a lot of organizations out there that support local agriculture and hunger relief. Both are starting to think along the lines of whole foods. Do research for an organization in your area you can help with, or if none exists, start one! City Harvest is always open to teaching people about food rescues.
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