Susan Goodell, Executive Director at Forgotten Harvest tells what Forgotten Harvest (FH) is going to do next. How this food bank is growing, and finding ways to fulfill needs in three counties.
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FH’s innovative plans for the future include a partnership with Rock City to develop a community kitchen in FH’s current Distribution Center (DC). This community kitchen would fill a unique niche in the soup kitchen market by taking foods that are not easily recognized or familiar, where preparation is unknown by most people. Examples of these kinds of foods include acorn squash, kiwi, star fruit, zucchini, etc. These foods are highly nutritious, so it is especially important that they be converted into a readily usable product.
FH’s community kitchen is still in the early stages. The Health Department has a pilot up and running, and FH is looking into getting running water in that portion of the DC where the soup kitchen will be. Another important function of this community kitchen will be canning, especially during the couple months when vitamin rich tomatoes are brought in, and canned so they can be used later on for tomato, spaghetti, and pizza sauce, as well as other tomato based foods. Rock City is also planning to start a repack program.
Goodell also pointed out that food rescue programs will be growing in popularity, and provided an article from the New York Times about how much food is wasted in the United States.