Rethink Food is working to help restaurants stay open while feeding the communities hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Brooklyn-based nonprofit, which recovers excess food from restaurants and grocery stores, launched several emergency programs to create jobs and distribute meals to people in need.
“We saw the restaurants around us folding left and right. That’s not only a major source of food for us, but it’s also our community,” Rethink Executive Director Megan Savage tells Food Tank.
The nonprofit’s new Restaurant Response Program provides 30 New York City restaurants with grants of up to US$40,000. The funding allows neighborhood eateries like Collective Fare to reopen their doors and create thousands of meals for underserved communities and workers on the frontlines of the pandemic.