Local group seeks food and transporters, to the rescue!
In just one year, from 2023 to 2024, volunteers with North Fork Food Rescue USrescued over 40,000 pounds of excess food from North Fork farms and bagel shops. That food became breakfast, lunch and dinner for thousands of families from Riverhead to Orient Point.
In its second year of operation, the group’s haul is up from 8,000 pounds of produce and bagels that filled plates and bellies instead of landfills.
“Without our work, many families in Riverhead and Southold towns would have been hungrier, and 40,000 additional pounds of food would either have been wasted or have gone into landfills,” said Anne Howard, site co-director. Now the organization is hoping to sign up more donors and volunteers to continue to expand its impact here.
“Our motto is to ‘fill plates, not landfills’ and research shows 40% of our food ends up in a landfill,” said Diane Marzec of Wading River, a volunteer food rescuer. Bagel shops call to say they have leftovers, and the volunteers, assigned to different days of the week, spring into action. All of the donated food is picked up and delivered the same day.
“I’m Tuesdays, and at 3 p.m. I go to Signature Bagels,” said Ms. Marzec. She then takes the 50 to 80 pounds of rescued bagels loaded into her car from Riverhead Plaza to local food pantries and shelters, including at St. John the Evangelist Church in Riverhead, Little Flower Children & Family Services and the Riverhead Senior Center. Ms. Marzec added that in the summer, the farms are “very generous.” She laughed as she recalled a watermelon rescue one day last summer. “The farm had so many leftover watermelons!”
On her Tuesdays, Ms. Marzec said, she sees the scope of need in the community. “I remember going to my first rescue to one of the food pantries,” she said. “We pulled up with our donation of produce and my husband said, ‘I wonder what all these cars are for?’ and I said all the people here need food.” She said he was “floored” by the number of people.
Over 3,100 people depend on the North Fork Parish Outreach in Southold for food rescued by volunteers like Ms. Marzec. “We have a steady stream of clients and it’s such a big help,” said director Maria Fedele. “Before Food Rescue North Fork, we were getting things, but not on a consistent basis. It’s fresh produce, bagels and sometimes sandwiches from Blue Duck Bakery. People love to get fresh produce. Everything goes!”
Since 2023, the Parish Outreach has seen a 19% increase in the number of clients coming in for food. Goldberg’s Bagels in Mattituck and Greenport donate their surplus bagels and Eastern Long Island Hospital has the volunteers collect prepared foods like sandwiches.
At the 40-acre Wowak Farms in Laurel, one of only a half-dozen farms that participate — up from two farms last year — the connection with Food Rescue US is a valuable partnership. “We always have extra stuff, but didn’t have the ability to drive it all over the North Fork,” said farm secretary Valerie Pettit, “so the produce — tomatoes, corn, squash, melons and eggplant — would just be left in the field. Having someone pick it up really solved the problem. We also donate broccoli, cauliflower and sprouts, whatever their car can hold!” she said. “It’s so nice to see that I can help.”
At this time, Ms. Howard said Food Rescue US North Fork does not pick up leftover food from restaurants or catering operations. “I’m sure we’re missing opportunities, but the restaurants don’t have a lot of food waste,” she continued regarding caterers, “their events end around 10 p.m. on a Saturday. We can’t ask volunteers to pick up at that time and it’s too much for the caterer with the logistics of packaging up the food.”
Anyone interested in volunteering is encouraged to contact the group at [email protected]. “We really need more volunteers for an hour or two a week, especially in the Riverhead area,” Ms. Howard said.
