City Harvest is more than 40 years old, but it’s never been more needed than it was over the last month.

The work of City Harvest, New York City’s largest food rescue organization, took on new urgency when the recent government shutdown cut off funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which serves roughly 42 million Americans.

City Harvest’s work tackles two issues of vital importance right now: food insecurity and climate change, both aggravated by policy decisions made by the Trump administration.

Though the shutdown ended Nov. 12 after a record 43 days, SNAP is still subject to more unprecedented cuts thanks to the so-called “mega-bill” signed into law in July. Some of those permanent cuts are already in force, which means the need for nutritious food in New York City will only continue to grow, Jenna Harris, associate director of City Harvest’s donor relations and supply chain team, tells Sentient.

It may sound paradoxical but despite rising food insecurity, food waste continues to be a massive problem both nationwide and globally. Only about 12% of the 14.5 million tons of recoverable food in the United States is donated to organizations like City Harvest.

In addition to supplying fresh food to people who need it, food rescue has another, lesser-known benefit: it helps to mitigate the climate crisis by reducing the emissions from food waste. Globally, food waste is responsible for 8-10% of all greenhouse gas emissions — about five times as much as the aviation industry.

New York City Food Rescue Under Pressure

On a Tuesday afternoon in July, Jaeok Kim, an associate director for research at the Vera Institute of Justice, wasn’t behind her desk working on criminal justice reform. Instead, she, along with 200 other volunteers, spent the latter half of the day collecting trays of leftover gourmet pastries and tubs of yogurt from the massive Javits Center near Hudson Yards. She scanned surplus food abandoned by vendors at the Specialty Food Association’s summer show. By the end of the day, Kim and her fellow volunteers had saved 84,000 pounds of food.

Read the full article about City Harvest's response to the SNAP crisis by Gaea Cabico at Floodlight.