Be the rescue: Working together to end hunger and food waste in community

They’re called rescuers: volunteers who transport fresh food that would otherwise be discarded by supermarkets, bakeries, and other food providers and deliver it directly to social service agencies that supply it to those in need. 

Pre-made salads and sandwiches, trays of pasta, loaves of bread – all perishable items that would likely end up in a landfill are being saved and put to use, thanks to Food Rescue US, a national nonprofit organization that, with the help of local residents June Ingraham and Anne Sacks-Berg, has found a home right here in Northport. 

Food Rescue US has three sites on Long Island: one in Nassau County and one in each the north and south forks of eastern Long Island. These sites have a network of food providers and volunteer rescuers who transport the fresh food directly to agencies that then distribute the food to those in need, including the community’s homeless and those lacking reliable access to affordable, nutritious food.

In 2023, Food Rescue US regional sites rescued more than 38 million pounds of food, providing 31 million meals. In a recent meeting with the Journal, Ingraham was quick to share more statistics about national food insecurity and waste:

40% of food in the US ends up in a landfill.
Food waste is responsible for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
42 million people in the US are food insecure.

“You look at all of that and it just feels like, ‘This is crazy. Why can’t we do more?’” she said.

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A passion for helping others and a bit of good timing brought Ingraham and Sacks-Berg together. Newly retired from a career in sports marketing and work in the nonprofit sector, Ingraham was looking for a challenge in this next chapter of life, and wanted to do something to help people, she said. 

“Food insecurity is important to me, it just seems like such a basic thing we overlook in our area. Everybody thinks there is food on every plate but there isn’t,” Ingraham said. She volunteered at local food banks, but felt something was missing. 

A Google search led her to the Food Rescue US website. She quickly noted a large expanse of Suffolk County where rescues did not exist. When she inquired about the void to Food Rescue representatives, she was told a site in Northport and the surrounding area could happen, but would need a director to build the operation from the ground up. Ingraham was interested and needed help. She asked a friend if she knew of someone who might have the time to join her. 

Around the same time, Sacks-Berg was at Temple Beth El, making sandwiches for distribution at Tri CYA (Tri Community and Youth Agency) and Paumanack Village. With her was Sue Seiler, who runs the soup kitchen at the Huntington temple. 

“I can do more than make sandwiches,” Sacks-Berg said to Seiler. “Tell me what else I can do.” Like Ingraham, Sacks-Berg, a former infectious disease physician at Huntington Hospital, had recently retired.  

Seiler instantly had the answer: via a mutual friend, the same one Ingraham had originally approached about needing help with a local Food Rescue site, she connected Sacks-Berg with Ingraham. The two met in July and “decided to get going,” Sacks-Berg said. They’re now more than halfway through a 90-day training program with Food Rescue, and speak excitedly about what the very near future holds. 

“I wanted something I could really dig into, that I could manage,” Ingraham said. “I didn’t want to just show up, do one thing and leave; I felt that I wanted to really orchestrate something, build something. And this just seemed like such a wonderful thing.”

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Already, Ingraham and Sacks-Berg have met with local agencies who distribute to the food insecure, from local churches to the East Northport Salvation Army, Ramon’s Place at Northport High School, the Family Service League in Huntington and Community Food Council, a 40-year-old, all-volunteer-run pantry tucked into the ground level of the Huntington LIRR parking garage.  

“You can see the incredible need for food, for clothing, for shelter, honestly,” Sacks-Berg said. The Northport/Western Suffolk site will strive to help the community’s hungry via access to nutritious prepared food. Food Rescue is different from traditional food pantries, the women said, in that it satisfies the need for fresh foods such as produce, dairy products, meat, and prepared items that can be eaten without the need to prep, heat or cook the food first.

As part of their research, Ingraham and Sacks-Berg have recently gone on rescues to get a feel for the work, and what it accomplishes. They shared a story of being called to Crestwood Country Day Camp in Melville for a rescue over the summer. It was a hot day, they said, and the camp was serving steaming trays of lasagna to the kids. No one ate it. The Food Rescue volunteers took 20 catering trays of the prepared dish directly to a Nassau County site that distributed it to the hungry.  

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Right now, Ingraham and Sacks-Berg are interested in getting word about the new Food Rescue site out to the local community. Last week, they spoke at a Northport Rotary Club meeting and are continuing to identify social service agencies that can accept and distribute fresh food donations. They’re forging ahead in finding food donors and providers and are in the beginning stages of developing a network of volunteers who can transport the rescued food from vendor to agency. 

The goal, Sacks-Berg said, is to pair the vendor with a receiving agency in a short distance, so that those volunteering their time as rescuers can do so with relative ease. 

Those interested in joining forces and being part of the leadership team with Ingraham and Sacks-Berg can email them directly at westernsuffolkNY@foodrescue.US. The women are currently looking for leads on food donors, and are welcoming people with specific skill sets to complement their operations: a tech-savvy social media person, a site coordinator, anyone with “a little time to give to something meaningful,” is welcome, Ingraham said.  

Nominal donations from organizations to cover the cost of incidentals associated with the local work, such as the purchase of individual food storage containers, are also accepted.

Volunteer applications (for both rescuers and donors) are available here, on the Food Rescue US website. A web-based app allows volunteers to look for rescues right from their phone. Once the site is officially established and operational, Northport rescuers will be able to pick the frequency of their rescues and the location to which they deliver. 

Learn more about the national nonprofit Food Rescue US organization here.