Meet Our Sustainability Partners
What goes into a meal?
At Rethink Food, we’re committed to building resilient communities that strengthen bonds across our food system — this includes our commitment towards a sustainable future.
For Earth Month, we’d like to honor our food donation partners and Rethink Food’s commissary kitchen for putting hearts and minds together toward a monumental effort ahead: racing to meet climate goals while ensuring everyone has access to nourishing meals.
*All food photography shown uses excess donated ingredients, photographed at Rethink Food’s sustainable commissary kitchen.
SUSTENANCE, CARBON, and H2O
According to the 2022 UN Emissions Gap Report, the food system is responsible for one-third of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, or 18 gigatons of CO2/year.
In the United States alone, 40% of the food supply goes uneaten, accounting for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Meanwhile, in 2022, 21% of adults living in the United States reported household food insecurity [1].
An effort we move toward every day: getting food supplies from areas of abundance to those of need. Restaurants, cooks, food purveyors, caterers, cafeterias, and more have a role to play; we thank our sustainability partners for their commitment to rescuing food and nourishing communities.
Culinary Team: Christina Zhong, Production Lead (left) and Isabella Mezzettone, Culinary Team Member (right)
Thanks to our sustainability + excess food donation partners —
a group that includes Manhattan West (Brookfield Properties), Chelsea Market (Jamestown Properties), Great Expectations catering, JP Morgan Corporate Dining, protein company 50/50, Whole Foods, and more — Rethink Food’s commissary kitchen receives several hundred pounds of donated food each week.
Donations can range from crates of rainbow carrots, bell peppers, citrus, and cabbages, to packaged foods such as diced vegetables mixes, sauces, and condiments.
Multiple donations are sorted and combined upon arrival. A crate of ingredients from Whole Foods might join a batch of seasoning created from multiple donations of salt, whole peppercorns, and spices. Together with the commissary’s culinary expertise, these donated ingredients are combined to create a diversity of menu options that make meals sustaining and delicious.
Culinary Team: Arturo Griffith, Kitchen Supervisor
Rethink’s culinary team calls on their expertise and a “use-everything” mindset to create delicious, nutrient-dense recipes for meals that go to those who otherwise may not know where their next meal is coming from. We use Rethink Food’s Meal guidelines to ensure that each freshly-prepared meal—transported in large, family-style meal pans to community organizations—provides food that is not only sustainably-prepared, but sustaining when eaten.
1.8+ MILLION POUNDS OF FOOD RESCUED (as of April 2023)
Giving excess food this culinary transformation requires creativity, optimization, and cooperation along an entire chain of committed individuals. Together, we’ve reduced carbon emissions and preserved fresh water by making nutritious meals for people facing food insecurity: 4.6M lbs of CO2 and 42.3M gallons of water since Rethink’s founding in 2017.
Culinary Team: Arturo Griffith, Kitchen Supervisor (left) and Ken Baker, Director of Culinary Operations (right)
And we don’t do this important work just during Earth Month. The commissary team works with expertise and dedication day in and day out, continually creating over 7000+ meals every week, finding a home for excess food in the form of fresh meals — meals that go out to community organizations (food pantries, soup kitchens, churches, schools, and more) serving people who need them most.
Diverting excess food while alleviating food insecurity — let’s keep it going. If you’d like to get involved, reach out here.
A look at some of our Earth Month activities:
