Tackling local food waste

By Claire Leone

As anyone off the street can tell you, this year has been anything but ordinary.  

But unfortunately, a person on the street might be able to tell you how this year has been all too ordinary for them. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, homelessness and food insecurity has been on the rise right here on Long Island. The Science and National Honor Societies of Comsewogue High School chose to act on this problem and give people hope, while addressing an underlying issue that’s been contributing to food waste all along.  

Unbeknown to many, the restaurant industry has to throw away large amounts of perfectly edible food to preserve their freshness and quality standards for the next day’s sales. 

It’s not just scraps from your plate that end up in the garbage, but as our student volunteer found out, also bags worth of food that can be distributed and eaten by the local population.  

We have a large problem with food waste in this country — any misshapen, overly large or small or mishandled food has to be thrown away. Approximately 40% of food is lost to this problem. 

Along with myself, Grace Togerson co-founded this program, while David Shubert also participated by doing longstanding pickups from restaurants. 

The plan was simple — pick up and drop off food donations. But even though that idea was simple, the execution was a lot more difficult to pull off the FRESH (Food Rescue Experiment Serving the Hungry) program.  

With weeks of cold calls, flyer preparations, rewrites and meetings, the program got on its feet with amazing participation from local businesses: Mount Sinai Bagel Cafe, Bagelicious Cafe, Gilshar Greek Cafe and churches, Saint Gerard Majella and Genesis Church.  

Since May, these contributors have been lending a hand to solve this problem of food waste and insecurity twofold and have made a large impact in decreasing landfill input and hunger on Long Island. 

Both Mount Sinai Bagel Cafe and St. Gerarg Majella Church expressed their support by saying they were “very grateful” to have played a part in adding to and stocking the food pantry.

Now that the school year is ending and our senior year is too, me and the other two volunteers are looking towards the future with our wonderful advisor, Mrs. Shane Goldberg.  

Mrs. Goldberg will continue accepting donations over the summer, and the program will continue in full swing with student volunteers for the whole of the next school year.  

Right now, this is also an opportunity to call on any local business or donor recipients who would like to participate in this program. 

If any would like to participate, please call Comsewogue High School at (631) 474-8179. 

This little experiment has shown me how big of an impact a few dedicated individuals can have, and I hope that it has shown you how anyone can make a difference even when we’re just a single person off the street.

Claire Leone is a graduating senior at Comsewogue High School. She is a member of the National Honor Society, as well as the National English Honor Society.