January 8, 2009
How One Person Feeds Hungry People
Just as we were "closing down" for the day, an email popped up from our friend, Peter Freimark, a mitzvah maker extraordinaire (and board member). On May 26, 2008 we shared the story of how Peter arranged for a donation of 22 tons of frozen chicken to Cleveland-area food programs. Peter was also instrumental in getting us food for the workers in Postville, Iowa.
There are two things that particularly bother Peter – first, he doesn’t like to see people go hungry, and second, he cannot abide good food going to waste. With those two principles guiding him, it was no surprise to learn that he had arranged the delivery of a truckload of food to several Cleveland-area shelters and pantries. Here is his short email describing what he had done over the past two days:
Through the good work of Joe Lordi in Youngstown we had a 53 foot truckload of beautiful food-there were skids of fresh salads in bags, milk of all types, IBC Root Beer, chocolate, Gatorade, strawberry applesauce and much, much more. Total cost for food, labor, warehouse space, vehicles, fuel and freight was $400! Now that’s leverage!
We could not agree more! Kol Hakavod, Peter!
We should add one more thing here. When the economy started to plummet Peter took on some additional work which we encourage others to investigate. After visiting several local food establishments (like the local Panera’s) he arranged to make pick-ups several nights each week to rescue the leftovers and deliver them to local pantries and shelters who feed hungry people. How many of us could do the same thing in our own communities? We would bet that many stores/restaurants are throwing away perfectly good food each day because there is no one who has arranged to make the pickup and get it to where it can do some good. What a great project for a few good friends to start-it could really make a difference.
