Food Rescue is teaming with The Kroger Foundation and The World Wildlife Fund as a consultant with an 8 city food waste audit cohort group that will promote food waste prevention and keeping nutritious food inside our food supply chain in our U.S. schools through conducting and studying the results of food waste audits in those 8 cities. Indiana's own Earth Charter Indiana and Jim Poyser will be conducting food waste audits in at least 5 local schools. Last week we were invited to speak in Washington D.C., and in a subsequent chance meeting we were able to speak to Senator Todd Young in the capital about Indiana's leadership on the subject of feeding families and not landfills in our nation's schools with nutritious unopened food that the USDA allows to be rescued from landfills. Senator Todd Young, FR Executive Director John Williamson, and John's wife Carol Williamson Food Rescue's presentation to the World Wildlife Fund and Kroger Foundation Grant Recipients
For every re-tweet of #BeTheGood video, Benevity will donate $10 to Food_Rescue. Please help us take advantage of their generosity. At 9:00 AM tomorrow on Giving Tuesday: 1) Open Twitter 2) Search @Benevity 3) RETWEET THEIR PINNED TWEET. YOU MUST CHOOSE RETWEET WITH COMMENT AND MAKE A COMMENT LIKE THE NONE BELOW FOR THE $10 TO COUNT. @food_rescue inspires student leaders. Thanks #BeTheGood all you do to promote charitable organizations. @food_rescue feeds children and families in need. Thanks #BeTheGood all you do to promote charitable organizations. Thanks for your consideration in advance! John Williamson Food Rescue Executive Director 317-694-4006 Over the last 12 years, Food Rescue has been featured in a number of media stories, but no reporter ever connected with our mission like Jennifer Carmack Brilliant. That connection led to Jennifer being hired as Food Rescue's Program Director in Marion County 3 years ago. During her time at Food Rescue Jennifer was able to convince 74 Marion County schools to allow their students to feed families instead of landfills with their unopened and unpeeled food items that they were choosing not to eat each day. To put that accomplishment in perspective, one particular school tracked 90,000 food items donated last year! So it is with great sadness that we are announcing that as of November 1, 2018, Jennifer will be stepping down as our program director in Marion County to focus on her family for this period of time. We will be announcing her replacement shortly, but we wanted to take this time to celebrate Jennifer and all she has meant to Food Rescue, and wish her well. Below is her final blog post sharing her journey with Food Rescue. We will miss you Jennifer! Life has a way of taking us places we never saw ourselves going, but where always belonged. That’s because life is full of opportunity. It is our decision to leap or stay the course. For close to twenty years, I worked as a journalist. This job afforded me the opportunity to witness every facet of humanity. The ugliness of the world. The lowest points of life for the best people. Things you couldn’t shake when you closed your eyes at night. But it also exposed me to the beauty of the world. It showed me the resiliency of the human spirit. It was often in those dark moments that the brightness came out in people. Working in news brought me to the next phase of my life. I had the opportunity to cover Food Rescue twice in my career. I was deeply impressed with the mission and the passion behind the work. Never in my wildest dreams did I think an email would pop up years later, opening the door for me to roll up my sleeves and do the work. Food Rescue not only allowed me to reinvent myself, but it also allowed me to once again witness the kinder side of the world. People who truly wanted to do good, help people and do the right thing. Food Rescue allowed me to simply show the way and hopefully inspire others to keep the mission rolling and growing. I want to tell you what Food Rescue really means to me. What kept me going when doors were being slammed shut. When people didn’t see that feeding people shouldn’t be that hard. Last year, we produced a video from our student leaders, or Food Rescue Warriors, perspective. During the shoot, a young boy, maybe eight or nine years old, came up to me and said, “Do you want to know why I think Food Rescue is great?’ Of course I did! He told me that his family didn’t have a lot of money. That some of his cousins had to go to food pantries. He told me they didn’t have enough at home to help but Food Rescue gave him the chance to make a difference. “It feels really good”, he said. THAT is what this is all about. Yes. It is important to feed people in need. It is important to respect our earth and teach children waste doesn’t make sense. It is also about empowering kids. Showing them what IS possible. This child never had an opportunity to give back because it was always assumed he needed to receive. We were showing him his worth and that, no matter what, you always have something to give. I think about him every single day. You see, I truly hope we changed his life, regardless though, he certainly changed mine. As I prepare to close this chapter of my journey, I hand it off to capable hands. I know Food Rescue will continue to spread. Hearts and minds will be touched and forever altered. I know mine has been. I am forever grateful for this incredible chance to make a difference in my community. To educate, to feed, to love my neighbors a little bit more. Spread the word, friends. No one should be hungry. Kids should know there is a better way. Kids deserve the chance to make a difference too. While my work will not end here, it is once again time to be still and listen. Time to see where my path will lead. I will take this opportunity to snuggle my young boys a little closer. Be more present in their fleeting childhoods. I hope our paths will once again cross and together, one person at a time, we can make the world a better place. If nothing else, always remember this: when you hear the call or feel the pull of change, just leap. You might find yourself right where you were always meant to be. Jennifer Carmack Brilliant Once Hungry for Food, Now Hungry for Change Ashley Cheesman My younger brother and I would take turns staying at grandmas’ houses so my mom and dad could work extra shifts. We never went to bed hungry. Then, I turned 16, and my parents divorced. Money became tight and food, less healthy. My siblings and I qualified for lunch assistance, and we all tried to keep our struggles secret. We weren’t the only students living on little, but I remember noticing, more and more, how much food others threw away. Perceptive friends offered me food, but teachers told us it was against the rules. In fall 2017, I enrolled in a Ball State Journalism immersive class to capture stories and recipes of East Central Indiana. I had no idea it would take me back to those days, as a hungry, uncertain child, but it did, and I am so thankful. Our research unearthed Food Rescue, a national nonprofit that works with more than 200 organizations and 500 schools to collect and redistribute unwanted and unwrapped items. Since its creation in 2017, the nonprofit has rescued roughly 1 million meals each year from the 40 percent of food we waste. At the organization’s 10-year celebration, I met John Williamson, the organization’s president and CEO, and learned he graduated from Ball State. It empowered me to know someone who maybe sat in these same seats, is making a lasting impact on the lives of boy and girls like me. The best part: Williamson is driven to eradicate the perception that people are “less than” if they accept the generosity of others. Food Rescue, based in Carmel, Indiana, encourages students—no matter their situation—to take from the collection. The organization’s focus on education helps young minds understand that enjoying rescued food lessens our impact on the environment. We throw away 1 billion unwrapped and unpeeled food items each year in the United States. My experience with hunger and need was short-lived, but life doesn’t settle down for everyone, and kids are often caught in the middle. One in six people are still food insecure in the United States, and more than 300,000 Hoosier kids don’t know where their next meal is coming from, according to Food Rescue. I hope Food Rescue and other organizations continue to change attitudes. I share my story to give a face to food insecurity in our region and to encourage my neighbors to not judge and to be part of the solution. This battle shouldn’t be fought alone. Together, we can make sure no one goes hungry. |
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