A WORD FROM OUR CEO

In 2023, Rethink Food celebrated its sixth anniversary. We kicked off the year reaching an incredible milestone of providing 10 million meals, and were honored to receive proclamations from NYC Mayor Eric Adams and NYC Council Speaker Adrienne E. Adams—declaring March 27 ‘Rethink Food Day.’ 

Our commitment to our home city has never been so important as New York City has welcomed close to 100,000 new neighbors this year, and both the City and our partners have observed a dramatic rise in the need for meals—turning to our organization and services to support this growing demand. At Rethink Food, we are committed to ensuring everyone who chooses New York as their home can access a dignified, high-quality meal. 

During the pandemic, we learned that small businesses and local restaurants were well equipped to provide culturally celebrated, healthy food that accommodates religious sensitivities to their community. This year, we had the opportunity to apply our approach and learning to help the city respond to the influx of asylum seekers. Through our model of leveraging local restaurants and MWBEs, we can double jobs in our local communities, increase tax revenue by 25% and dollars spent locally by 33%, all while bringing thoughtfulness, passion, and hospitality to the food service we provide, which has historically been left out of emergency and supplemental food programs.

Over the last 3 years, RethinkFood has harnessed the generosity of individuals, corporations, and foundations—using philanthropic funding to support small businesses in feeding people and improving food quality. We are grateful to the City of NY for allowing us to engage our local business partners through government contracting in response to our city’s most recent asylum seeker response. It’s been so rewarding to see the impact of our model on newly arrived New Yorkers and how our partners have responded with such expedience, dedication, innovation, and pride. Much work still needs to be done, but we are excited and ready to meet the challenge. 

Since 2017, generous partners and supporters like you have brought us closer to our goal of creating a more sustainable and equitable food system—helping us provide over 16.7 million meals to vulnerable communities through 180+ community-based organizations, direct over 44 million dollars to 130+ small local restaurants and food establishments, and recover over 2.1 million pounds of excess food to convert into meals, saving 5.4 million lbs of CO2 and 49 million gallons of fresh water. 

Partnership is at the core of achieving our mission, and again this year, we’ve seen the power of community that makes New York City so unique. We are so grateful for your ongoing support of Rethink Food and those we serve. 

I hope you enjoy reading about some of our accomplishments this year in our year-end report and take a moment to acknowledge what we’ve accomplished together. It is a testament to our community’s commitment and dedication to our mission, and we could not have done this without you. 

Thank you for your support and belief in our work. 

Matt Jozwiak,

Rethink Food Founder and ceo