{"id":303654,"date":"2026-06-11T09:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T09:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/303654\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T09:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T09:04:08","slug":"turning-restaurant-leftovers-into-meals-to-combat-miamis-food-insecurity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/303654\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning restaurant leftovers into meals to combat Miami\u2019s food insecurity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Volunteers<\/p>\n

Volunteers serve breakfast to individuals experiencing food insecurity at the Greater Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Overtown, Miami, on Friday, June 5, 2026.<\/p>\n

Pedro Portal<\/p>\n

pportal@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n

On Friday mornings, a historic church in Overtown becomes a bustling kitchen. The wafting smell of buttery grits floats in the air and the sound of oil crackling in pans bounces off concrete walls.<\/p>\n

Adam Snitzer, co-founder of Nourish Miami<\/a>, captains this well-oiled machine. Ready to go at 6:15 a.m., volunteers scoop rice into containers. Another pair place halved pastries, including pain au chocolats and croissants, onto large trays.<\/p>\n

As 8 a.m. approaches, Snitzer and the Nourish Miami team stack trays of steaming food outside the Greater Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. A stack of 125 plates and a roll of red tickets sit on one end of the table. On the opposite end, past the giant pot of grits, is a jug of coffee and juice. It\u2019s almost go time.<\/p>\n

Created only a year ago, Nourish Miami is a food recovery and redistribution organization that turns luxurious leftovers into quality meals for those in need. The organization collects food from restaurants and resorts like The Capital Grille, JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort and Spa and The Surf Club and uses it to make meals for those facing food insecurity. Snitzer and his rotation of volunteers feed about 1,200 people a week, focusing their efforts in Overtown, Liberty City, Little Haiti, Allapattah and Brownsville. Recent data shows that 15 percent of Miami-Dade County residents are food insecure.<\/p>\n

\"Adam Adam Snitzer (far left) packs food into containers before Nourish Miami\u2019s breakfast service at the Greater Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Overtown. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re really trying to do is connect the hospitality industry with the food insecure people in the urban core,\u201d Snitzer said.<\/p>\n

And the menu is something out of a five-star restaurant \u2014 sausage, bacon, eggs, home-fried potatoes with steak, pastries and shrimp and grits.<\/p>\n

Snitzer, the former senior vice president of MSC Cruises, discovered a passion for food the way a lot of people did \u2014 being stuck at home during the pandemic. As his retirement crept up on him, he knew he couldn\u2019t work in a kitchen. Instead, he began volunteering, but was never satisfied.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t give volunteers really meaningful stuff to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In his search for better opportunities, he came across The Village (FREE)DGE,<\/a> a grassroots organization based in Liberty City that stocks community fridges. Eager to make his own difference, Nourish Miami was born.<\/p>\n

\"Zacharia Zacharia Robinson eats breakfast during Nourish Miami\u2019s breakfast service at the Greater Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

First Snitzer began collecting food in his sedan, then upgraded to a truck, then a van. Now, he uses the Poinciana Park Elementary School kitchen as a commissary and sets up at the Greater Bethel AME Church every Friday morning to serve a nutritious breakfast.<\/p>\n

John Barker, Nourish Miami co-founder and community chef, spends his Friday mornings alongside volunteers scrambling eggs and seasoning shrimp. A retired lawyer, Barker says he doesn\u2019t mind waking up at 5 a.m. when the work is so rewarding.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve gone from feeding 60 people three months ago to consistently feeding around 115 people a week at the church.<\/p>\n

Barker said Nourish Miami typically collects food Tuesdays and Thursdays. CookUnity, a meal preparation subscription service with menus cultivated by local chefs, provides 40 to 60 half plates filled with ready-to-go meals, and places like Turnberry sometimes provide shrimp and other quality ingredients.<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s so much food waste\u2019<\/p>\n

Brian Kenny, the executive director of culinary at the JW Marriott, was happy to work with Nourish Miami after he was approached by Snitzer. When Kenny worked with hotels in Las Vegas, sustainability programs were already in place to encourage food recycling. He was surprised to see it wasn\u2019t the same in South Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of food that customers don\u2019t eat,\u201d Kenny said. \u201cWe have a walk-in cooler, and it\u2019s locked up. We gave Adam\u2019s team the combination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some pickups can contain as much as 1,000 pounds of food. Kenny believes it benefits everyone involved \u2014 Marriott as a company gets to give back to its community, and plenty of high-quality produce gets put to use feeding some of Miami\u2019s most food-insecure communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s always the biggest problem with sustainability\u2026is having somebody who wants to do it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut finding that person or that group that is excited\u2026it was kind of fate that Adam approached us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Volunteers Volunteers from left, Elder Cooper, John Barker and Adam Arnaout, prepare breakfast for a food drive hosted by Nourish Miami, a Miami-based food recovery organization, at the Greater Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Overtown, Miami, on Friday, June 5, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

Volunteers from MSC Cruises spent their Friday morning with Nourish Miami last week. Natasha Fernandez, a 26-year-old manager of media relations, helped pack and distribute lunches with arroz congri, plantains and a variety of proteins.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou start understanding and learning that there\u2019s so much food waste that goes into our communities,\u201d Fernandez said.<\/p>\n

She believes the organization\u2019s collaboration with local businesses can be the start of something bigger.<\/p>\n

The line outside the Greater Bethel AME Church began to move once each person was handed a red ticket. Women were ushered to the start of the line, and the assembly line of serving spoons was set in motion.<\/p>\n

That day, Nourish Miami fed over 125 people, a new record. There was enough food for people to come back for seconds.<\/p>\n

Snitzer says its just beginning. His goal for Nourish Miami is to feed 5,000 people three times a week. Between Friday breakfast, the community kitchen, offering takeout containers at the Overtown Youth Center and their collaborations with The Village (FREE)DGE, he continues to expand their efforts to reach the food insecure.<\/p>\n

\"A A man eats a plate of breakfast from Nourish Miami\u2019s morning food service at the Greater Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Overtown, Miami, on Friday, June 5, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

Kim Williams, 59, first noticed Nourish Miami as she was walking by. She\u2019s been stopping b for the past two months. While she visits friends to help prepare lunch and dinner, she said she appreciates the effort the organization puts into providing a nutritious breakfast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope they can continue because there\u2019s going to be people that don\u2019t know about it,\u201d Williams said. \u201cIt would be nice if they could advertise somehow so more people can take advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zacharia Robinson, 41, also learned about Nourish Miami and Greater Bethel AME Church through a friend. He was told there was a church where he could get clothes, access a shower and grab some breakfast on Friday mornings. He said since Nourish Miami began serving breakfast at the church, he\u2019s felt a real sense of community among the people who Nourish Miami is helping.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s right where it\u2019s needed,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Volunteers serve breakfast to individuals experiencing food insecurity at the Greater Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Overtown,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-303654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}