The Story
With restaurants and schools closed due to COVID-19, farmers are forced to destroy millions of pounds of fresh food that they can no longer sell. At the same time, Americans across the country are losing jobs, depleting savings and turning to food banks for the first time. Overwhelmed by the demand, food banks are forced to turn away families empty-handed, leaving them in hunger.
A group of eight friends mobilized a bootstrapped effort, Farms to Food Banks, to move food from oversupplied farms to undersupplied food banks. Within two weeks farmers, drivers, volunteers, media and thousands of donors had joined the effort.
The idea was conceived on April 14th and our South Bronx community non-profit partner, East Side House Settlement, distributed food for 800 families two weeks later on April 29th.
This was only the beginning.
Donations poured in, volunteers stepped up. By September Farms to Food Bank raised $1.5 million dollars to buy fresh produce from farmers and deliver it to the hungry people of NY. To date:
$1.5+ MILLION RAISED
230,000+ PEOPLE FED
1.3 MILLION+ LBS OF FOOD DISTRIBUTED
Thank you to our 2,500+ individual donors, 10+ corporate donors and hundreds of volunteers.
