Lately I’ve been volunteering quite a bit and one of my favorite organizations to volunteer with is City Harvest. I discovered this organization in November when the federal cuts to SNAP were at the top of the news and I’ve continued to volunteer with them because I get to help hundreds of NYC families at every shift. I especially like volunteering here because they don’t waste your time. Every type of shift is quite efficient and each volunteer can see that they’ve made a significant impact in just a few hours.
The main idea of City Harvest is to rescue food (primarily produce) that would otherwide go to waste and hand it out to food pantries, soup kitchens, and directly to families in need. Volunteers get to help with this mission with a few different types of shifts and at this point I’ve had the opportunity to do them all.
Food Rescues happen at the end of conferences and trade shows for the food industry. I’ve helped with a few of these and it’s always interesting. We collect any extra food that vendors didn’t hand out and don’t want to pack up and bring back to their warehouses. One time I collected dozens of boxes of pomegranates and pistacios from the Wonderful Farms booth and another time I got extra soy milk from the world final latte art competition. Here I’m holding a box of dragonfruit.
Repacks happen at the City Harvest warehouse in Sunset Park. They usually don’t fit with my schedule but they allow a large number of volunteers to repack pallets worth of food in individual bags for easy distribution.
Mobile Markets are my go-to type of shifts. They happen in low income neighborhoods all over the city. At each one we hand out 6000-20000 lbs of produce directly to New Yorkers in just a few hours.
Cooking Demos help to teach people how to cook, provide recipe inspiration related to the food we’re giving out, or just provide a little extra snack. They happen at some of the mobile markets and sometimes as standalone cooking classes. I enjoy these because I get to use my cooking skills and hand out ready-to-eat samples.
As of mid-May I’ve done 15 volunteer shifts so far with more planned in the coming weeks.
If you live in NYC and you want to volunteer with me, feel free to reach out so we can sign up for shifts together!