East NY Leader Proposes Food Donor And Recipient Database

BROWNSVILLE, BROOKLYN — City council member Rafael Espinal — who represents Brownsville, Bushwick and East New York — introduced legislation on Thursday with City council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito that would create a web portal to connect prospective food donors with prospective food recipients, like food banks and nonprofits.

The portal would include a database of restaurants and grocery stores with which food rescue organizations could connect to retrieve leftover food or food that would otherwise be thrown out, Espinal said.

Espinal's office noted that every year, 40 percent of the food in the United States goes uneaten. At the same time, his office said, 42.2 million Americans live in food insecurity, 13.1 million of whom are children. In New York City, 16.4 percent of the population is food insecure.

The portal would allow a restaurant or grocery store to describe the type of food it has available and would allow for specific logistical information such as how much food, refrigeration requirements, packing parameters and location of the food. It would let nonprofits and food banks specify the types and size of food donations it would accept and get notifications whenever there is food available in their preferred neighborhoods.

The portal would feature a messaging system through which nonprofits and food banks could communicate directly with food donors.

Espinal noted that millions of metric tons of food ends up in landfills per year and costs local governments $1.5 billion a year. He called the portal "the Amazon.com of food rescue," and said it would help local businesses and the environment while giving to those in need.

"Local municipalities must not allow uneaten food to end up in our landfills, but in the homes of our hungry residents," Espinal said. "Food waste is bad for the environment, bad for the poor and bad for business... This legislation would be a win for our businesses, city resources, environment and most importantly, a win for New Yorkers in need of a helping hand."

Mark-Viverito said the portal "ensures that our most vulnerable residents receive necessary nutrition assistance, while those donating help to lessen the amount of waste created by unused food products every day."

Photo via public domain