Community Plates Needs Food Runners!

Community Plates is a non-profit organization that has employed one simple idea to address the complex issue of hunger, and in just a handful of months, made a huge impact in our community.  Community Plates connects food to people in need of it, by rescuing good food that would otherwise be thrown away and delivering it to hunger relief agencies in Fairfield County.  Community Plates has 26 food donors stretching from Greenwich to Fairfield, but we need your help to complete the direct transfer of the food to those who need it. 

Food runners drop off food that can be served to local food insecure individuals the same day – if not within just a few hours. We have many food rescue opportunities that we want to add to our schedule but we need more runners in order to add new donors and feed more people. To be involved with the Community Plates initiative, volunteers are asked to commit to just one food run or bin collection a month (15 – 60 minute effort).

Direct-transfer food rescue powered by technology isn’t business as usual in the food rescue arena. The direct-transfer part of the equation means that overhead stays low by eliminating warehouses, trucks and employees and most importantly that more fresh food gets to where it’s needed in time to actually make into a meal.  Most importantly direct-transfer means that more and more people (by the hundreds now and soon by the thousands) are connected in a real way to their communities; spending time with food-donors, those who receive and distribute the food and sometimes even those who will be eating the food.

There are 100,000 people in Fairfield County designated as food insecure. Only 50,000 of these people qualify for food stamps, where and how are the remainder eating?

 

Food run participation can fit into each volunteer’s schedule, for example:

- “Own” a run every day or once a week

-  Have spare time one afternoon?  Check the Community Plates website or mobile app to see if there’s an open run at the time

It takes less than an hour to bring food to somebody who desperately needs it. SIGN UP FOR A FOOD RUN NOW. 

If you are a restaurant, caterer, or food store, and would like to find out how to DONATE food to Community Plates, READ THIS.