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Sunday, November 28, 2010

Unique Program Putting Leftovers on Tables of the Hungry

By D'Val Westphal
Of the Journal
          Around this time many New Mexicans are wishing there were more leftovers in the fridge. Or a lot less.
        On this long Thanksgiving weekend it is sobering to know the annual holiday battle over leftovers is one that about 15 percent of the state's population would love to fight. The latest USDA study on food insecurity says 14.7 percent of New Mexicans don't know where their next meal is coming from.
        But this is Thanksgiving weekend, and rather than offer up another too-true and too-depressing tale of the state of the economy guaranteed to provoke indigestion, here's an homage to human ingenuity and common sense and thrift — all things New Mexicans can be thankful for, all things to try to replicate past the holiday season, all having to do with leftovers.
        As part of the New Mexico Collaboration to End Hunger, Adelante Development Center has a program that should give everyone a V-8 moment — if not a V-8.
        Krista Kelley is vice president of development at Adelante, home of the Desert Harvest Food Rescue Program of Albuquerque. Founded in 2001 as a partnership with the PNM Foundation, Desert Harvest "rescues surplus food from restaurants, hotels, schools and supermarkets. With funding from the PNM Foundation, that food is then distributed to 15 agencies that support families dealing with poverty, homelessness and domestic violence — at no cost to either the providers or the recipients."
        That's right. Instead of throwing perfectly good food out after the grocery store closes/the school lunch period is over/the restaurant kitchen is done for the night/the wedding reception is called off, Desert Harvest has set up a system for that food to be packaged, stored and distributed quickly to people who are hungry.
        And those faceless hungry people include one in every four New Mexico kids and one in every 10 New Mexico seniors, according to the collaboration. They don't fit the stereotype of the unemployed or shiftless or scamming; they just don't have enough income to make sure everyone in the household gets enough to eat.
        To help make sure they do, when Tomato Café employees are done for the night, "they take the food that has been prepared but unused for their buffet and put it into food-safe containers provided by Desert Harvest (and) store it overnight," Kelley says. "The next day volunteers arrive at a scheduled time to pick up and distribute the food to a local nonprofit agency."
        You wouldn't pay restaurant prices for yesterday's pasta or salad or breadsticks. But if after Sunday dinner it was all stored safely in the fridge and in airtight bags at your house, you sure would dish it up and dig in come Monday lunchtime. Desert Harvest makes sure that happens routinely, and on a much grander scale.
        While the nation throws out an estimated 300 billion pounds of food every year, Desert Harvest works with 59 donor organizations to rescue 100,000 meals a month, 1.2 million meals a year.
        So when the catered diner for 400 at the Albuquerque Convention Center gets canceled, Kelley says, the Convention Center calls Desert Harvest, which "will then find an agency to give the food to. The food gets packaged by Convention Center staff by category, i.e. steaks will be put in half-sheet aluminum pans, bread in food-grade plastic bags, soup in plastic containers, etc. Concurrently, volunteers or the agency itself are sent to pick up the food, ... (which is) distributed immediately."
        While I'm not a fan of long lists, the foresight of the other businesses and groups that pick Desert Harvest over the landfill deserve thanks — and perhaps your patronage. They include:
        Affiliated Foods, Albuquerque Academy, Albuquerque Country Club, Albuquerque Public Schools, Albuquerque Tortilla Company, Borders Bookstore, Boston's Pizza and Sports Bar, The Children's Center, Cici's Pizza, Dawn Sanchez Creations, Dos Hermanos, Einstein Bros. Bagels, Embassy Suites Albuquerque, Hotel Albuquerque, Jewish Community Center, KFC, Little Caesar's Pizza, Lovelace Women's Hospital, Mimi's Café, Nativo Lodge, Pizza Hut, Red Lobster, Romano's Macaroni Grill, Starbucks, Sunflower Market, Sweet Tomatoes, Talin Market, Tim's Place, Trader Joe's, Village Market, Vitamin Cottage, Venezia's Pizzeria and Whole Foods Market.
        So why doesn't every business join in? Maybe they don't know about the program or the state law that protects them from liability.
        Kelley cites New Mexico Statute 41-10-3, which says in part that any "good-faith donor of any perishable or canned food, apparently fit for human consumption, to a bona fide charitable or nonprofit organization or municipality for free distribution or a gleaner of any perishable food, apparently fit for human consumption, shall not be subject to any criminal penalty or be liable for any civil damages arising from the condition of the food unless an injury arising from the food is caused by the gross negligence, recklessness or intentional conduct of the person who donates the food."
        Desert Harvest received national recognition this month from the Mutual of America Life Insurance Company for its successful community partnership. But the best way to recognize the program won't be with a plaque or a press release.
        It will be by expanding and replicating it across the state. There are enough leftovers for everyone.
        road@abqjournal.com