Community Plates Receives $15K Grant from Fairfield County Community Foundation to Expand Food Rescue

Community Plates, the Connecticut-based food rescue organization, has some great news.  Fairfield County Community Foundation awarded a $15,000 grant to Community Plates to support the expansion of the organization’s local food rescue efforts.

The organization, which was founded in 2010, is committed to ending American food insecurity by directly collecting fresh, usable food that would have otherwise been thrown away by restaurants, markets and other food industry sources and bringing it to locations like Pacific House in Stamford where meals are served to homeless men.

Executive Director Kevin Mullins expressed his gratitude to the foundation. “Ending hunger in Fairfield County is going to require both innovation and collaboration. One hundred percent of this grant Community Plates received from Fairfield County’s Community Foundation goes to funding this simple solution to ending hunger, right here in Fairfield County,” he said.

Alec Madoff with bagels from Upper Crust Bagel Company & Deli. The bagels arrived at Pacific House emergency men's shelter in Stamford less than 1/2 hour later. Credit: Leslie Yager

Alec Madoff with bagels from Upper Crust Bagel Company & Deli. The bagels arrived at Pacific House emergency men’s shelter in Stamford less than 1/2 hour later. Credit: Leslie Yager

Recently, GFP accompanied food runner Alec Madoff of Greenwich on a food rescue run.

After stopping at Re Napoli, Upper Crust Bagels and Sound Alec headed up Sound Beach Pizza to collect pizzas and bags of bagels that would otherwise have gone to waste, Alec hopped on I95 and 10 minutes later arrived at Pacific House emergency men’s shelter in Stamford, where manager Velma Clark and staff wheeled the food straight into the kitchen.

Since 2011, in Fairfield County alone, Community Plates has rescued and delivered 6.3 million meals, saving 9.5 million pounds of food from landfill.  Conservatively, this has an estimated value of over $10.4 million.

Fairfield County’s Community Foundation promotes philanthropy as a means to create change in Fairfield County, focusing on innovative and collaborative solutions to critical issues impacting the community. Individuals, families, corporations and organizations can establish charitable funds or contribute to existing funds. The Community Foundation is in compliance with the Council on Foundations’ national standards, and has awarded over $185 million in grants to nonprofits in Fairfield County and beyond. For more information, visit www.fccfoundation.org .

Founded in January 2011, Community Plates is committed to ending American food-insecurity through direct-transfer food rescue. Established as a 501(c)3 non-profit food-rescue platform, Community Plates is focused on transferring healthy, usable foods to where it can help feed those in need. This volunteer-driven, technology fueled process coordinates with restaurants, grocers, bakeries, caterers and other food-service organizations who have foods destined to be thrown away and delivers the food to soup-kitchens, food-pantries and other hunger relief organizations who serve food-insecure individuals and families.

Signing up for a good run is simple. Just browse the app, called “Go Rescue,” and sign up for a run.

“They make it so easy,” Alec said. “If I can figure it out, anyone can. They give you very good instructions and directions,” he said of the food rescue run.

Hunger in the US doesn’t make sense. About 30% of all food is wasted. One person can make a difference. Go to Community Plates, pick up their technology and signup for a food run.

See also:

Preventing Food Waste in Greenwich, One Bagel, One Pizza at a Time


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