Food Recovery Helps Beat Food Insecurity in Rockland County

Thanks to our partnership with Rockland Community Against Hunger (RCAH), a local coalition of area feeding programs, TOUCH’s food recovery program continues to expand. The program began in mid-2018 with support from Rockland County Department of Social Services and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. We’re proud that in 2018 we prevented over 40,000 lbs of food that stores were about to discard from being sent to landfills. Instead, that food was distributed to over 30 feeding programs in Rockland County, providing thousands of meals to the hungry, chronically ill, and food insecure in the county.

RCAH partner agencies Meals on Wheels of Rockland and Bridges partner with us to pick up and sort the food donated by area stores and restaurant like New City Stop & Shop, FoodTown, Davids Bagels of Valley Cottage, Meredith’s Bakery, and more.

Along with volunteers, RCAH partner agencies contribute to the labor-intensive transporting and sorting of rescued food to feeding programs throughout the county. RCAH partner agency Martin Luther King Community Center in Spring Valley is a drop-off Hub for Spring Valley feeding programs, which enables them to more readily have access to the food we recover without trekking across the county on a weekly basis to access recovered food.

Food Recovery is a win/win/win for people, community health, and the planet. In 2019, we’ve exceeded our goals and are on track to recover 80,000 lbs of food in Rockland County, nearly  twice as much as 2018. Scaling up that quickly means we’ve relied on the support of volunteers, staff and partners to assist in the labor-intensive sorting and transporting necessary to turn rescued food around quickly to people that need it. Please consider supporting Food Recovery in Rockland County by donating time, food, or money. Food Rescue route volunteer require a commitment of as little as an hour per week. Please contact MDurante@touch-ny.Org or by calling 845-268-8023 for more info.