As hundreds of thousands of Bronxites lose access to SNAP benefits during the ongoing federal government shutdown, one local food rescue operation is stepping up to fill the gap \u2014 by turning food waste into nourishment.<\/p>\n
Inside the Hunts Point Produce Market, volunteers from the nonprofit Sharing Excess sort through pallets of donated fruits and vegetables \u2014 orange after orange, box after box \u2014 to make sure nothing edible goes to waste.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so many of these boxes on one pallet\u2014it gets up to like 80,\u201d said Douglas, a food sorter. \u201cEvery other pallet is just stacked to the brim.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group rescues perfectly good produce that grocery stores and wholesalers can\u2019t sell, redistributing it to food pantries, shelters and community kitchens across the borough. The rest \u2014 bruised or spoiled \u2014 is composted to keep it from ending up in landfills.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe partner with hundreds of major food businesses ranging from wholesalers to grocery stores,\u201d said Evan Ehlers, CEO of Sharing Excess. \u201cWe take their surplus food that\u2019s perfectly edible, but for whatever reason they weren\u2019t able to sell it, and we redistribute it to feed communities in need.\u201d<\/p>\n
From a startup born in Ehlers\u2019 college dorm room in 2018 \u2014 when he used his remaining dining plan credits to feed the hungry \u2014 Sharing Excess has grown into a nationwide network. Today, the organization operates out of the largest produce warehouse in the country, feeding thousands of Bronx residents daily.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more important than ever to get this excess food out to community members who can use it to feed families,\u201d Ehlers said. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t be letting any food go to waste while people are growing hungry \u2014 especially during a shutdown.”<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a repetitive job \u2014 inspecting, sorting and boxing produce for hours \u2014 but one that\u2019s keeping Bronx bellies full when it matters most.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As hundreds of thousands of Bronxites lose access to SNAP benefits during the ongoing federal government shutdown, one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-30611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}