



On A Summer evening on Long Island, Food not Bombs volunteers help share tons of recovered groceries with neighbors

Now that the year is half over, some of us may be reflecting on our 2013 goals. Perhaps you want to incorporate volunteerism into a regular schedule but question whether your time will make a difference or provide the expected satisfaction. Awareness of global warming, among endless societal predicaments, has sent many into a state of overwhelming helplessness, if not plain denial. Environmentalist Joanna Macy calls this common feeling "planetary anguish". Professor of sustainability, Glenn Albrecht has coined the term 'solastalgia' to describe "a type of homesickness or melancholia that you feel when you are at home and your home environment is changing all around you in ways that you feel are profoundly negative". These insights are relayed in Mary Pipher's book, The Green Boat: Reviving Ourselves in Our Capsized Culture. Pipher offers that action is the healthiest step after accepting that our planet is indeed taking an uncontrollable turn.

With endless organizations working to make a difference, it can be a job in itself to chose one worth our time. For the indecisive humanitarian, food recovery groups often benefit the environment, economy and community members.

Long Island Food Not Bombs puts a stop to the waste and greed causing hunger in communities. Their food shares take place in low income areas on Long Island on a regularly scheduled basis. Volunteers provided over 1 million pounds of groceries last year. The food, picked up from supermarkets would otherwise be thrown away. Jon Stepanian, CEO of this industrious chapter, explains the benefits of food recovery on an economic, environmental and humanitarian level.

How can food recovery help the environment?

Stepanian: "Prevention of food waste reduces landfill and greenhouse gases. There is also the theoretical notion that on a large scale food recovery would reduce the need for our current over-production model. Hypothetically meaning we'd be able to use less land, water, labour, etc... effectively reducing our direct use of the land, and further reducing CO2 emissions by reducing the amount of food that needed to be transported using fossil fuels. However, we already produce vastly more food than the inhabitants of our planet need, so reducing food waste really wouldn't have the later benefits unless we also changed the economic model used for the growth and distribution of food. Essentially, the greater environmental benefits of food rescue will only be realized when we no longer commodify food."

What about the economy?

Stepanian: "Because of commodification, food prices have steadily increased over the past 15 years and over the same time wages have flatlined mostly due to America's shift to a service based economy. The result is that; Community organizations that implement food rescue programs keep many families, that were considered middle class a decade ago, from falling into poverty."

Low income community members?

"Especially for low income earners, food rescue provides access to more nutritious foods. Foods that lower income earners may be priced out of. Organic foods, and produce are usually more expensive than unhealthy fast food, but they are also the foods that are being wasted in the largest quantities. Lower income earners gain access to more nutritious foods through food rescue, and in so doing, the added health benefits those foods provide."

What is the biggest need from your organization/ with what do you need the most help?

Stepanian:"Long Island Food Not Bombs needs more vehicles to transport rescue foods. The only limit on what we can collect and distribute is the few hundred vehicles we have to collect it with. You can help us in this regard by volunteering your time and vehicle or donating funds to support our project. "

How is your organization more beneficial than larger, more well known and publicly funded groups such as City Harvest,in terms of efficiency?

Stepanian: "We're a decentralized organization, meaning that everything we collect must be immediately distributed within 3 hours. City Harvest and most large food collection agencies are centralized. All the food they collect must go to a warehouse to be sorted, then that food is put on trucks and sent to soup kitchens and pantries where it will be distributed. This creates a delay of roughly 48 - 128 hours between the time foods are collected, to the time they're able to be distributed. Because of this, agencies like City Harvest can't effectively collect most forms on produce or perishables. Bananas, greens, vegetables and fruits all have limited shelf life. The result is that organizations like City Harvest distribute mostly bread and canned goods. In fact, produce usually makes up less than 10% of all their distributions. For us, over 50% of what we distribute is fresh produce."

The personal benefits of volunteering for a food recovery group become immediately clear at a Food Not Bombs Food Share, run by Mr. Stepanian. Every Sunday at 2 pm, you will find him at the Hempstead Long Island Railroad Station along with a community of volunteers and about one hundred and fifty citizens with grocery bags to fill for their families for the week. Boxes upon boxes of fresh produce, bread, prepared salads, juice, organic peanut butter, desserts, baby food, diapers, bird seed are unloaded onto tables and up for grabs. Volunteers do help to maintain some order: To receive, you must be on the other side of the table and allowed one of each item before returning to the back of the line for seconds. There is always plenty, however, and nobody is ever turned away. Everything comes from well known, high quality supermarkets who simply cannot keep these leftovers because of the need to constantly restock.

Jon also spends early mornings cooking hot vegan dishes to share with his community. With out volunteers, this group would be unable to keep their commitments to each served community on Long Island (Every Saturday, there is a Brooklyn Share at 3 pm)

Grassroots entities such as these only make sense in a world in need of change. If you have ever felt frustration or hopelessness from the ongoing status of the "haves and havenots", hunger, poverty, food waste or climate change, perhaps invest some time in a food recovery group. You are welcome to take what you need, as Food not Bombs believes food is a right, not a privilege.

The schedule of Foodshares and other exciting facts can be found at www.lifnb.com

