nothin Rejected Produce Rescued To Feed Hungry | New Haven Independent

Rejected Produce Rescued To Feed Hungry

Samantha Bashaw Photo

It’s a Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. Suzanne Hudd backs her Honda HRV into the loading dock at ShopRite in Hamden Plaza.

The metal door opens, and she is met with a pile of boxes containing slightly bruised apples, malformed carrots and other produce. The various vegetables and fruits are edible, but not wanted by shoppers.

With the help of produce manager Kenneth Lynch, Hudd packs the 25 boxes into her Honda and brings it to people who don’t care whether an onion isn’t in season or if an avocado is too soft.

Hudd is a sociology professor at Quinnipiac University who teaches a social stratification class focused on exposing students to real-world issues by actively getting involved in the community. For two semesters, Hudd has worked with her students to start this pilot program at ShopRite, which entails bringing food the grocery store would otherwise throw away to the M.L. Keefe Community Center’s food pantry, which does not typically offer fresh produce.

The goal of your education is to look at things differently,” Hudd said. If you can enliven [teaching] with real-people stories, it suddenly becomes meaningful. These are people that are being impacted by this.”

Hudd’s idea is a simple one; it just requires time, vehicles and volunteers. But she has found that it has been challenging at times to organize and sustain with limited resources.

Amy Schoenfeld Walker Photo

Sometimes I have to pinch myself to think that this [program] has so much potential,” Hudd (pictured) said in March when she launched the program. So that’s a huge thing that weighs on my shoulders. If it’s not going to be sustained and we only did it for five weeks, that’ll be very troubling for me.”

Nearly every Tuesday since March, Hudd has driven to ShopRite, stuffed her car full of produce boxes and driven the 11 minutes down Dixwell Avenue to the M.L. Keefe Community Center, where she unloads her car and fills the center’s food pantry to the brim.

Her connection with the Keefe Center began when Hudd, who grew up in Hamden, asked the center what her class could help with. After creating a needs assessment survey, the students had an answer from Hamden residents: a great need for vegetables and other fresh produce.

The next step in launching the pilot program was connecting with ShopRite.

I chose ShopRite because I shop there and I know it’s locally owned,” Hudd said. I read enough about food waste and knew there had to be some going on at ShopRite. I would go in there at 7 a.m. and they would be picking things off the shelf, so I knew some of it was going to waste, but I had no idea how much.”

Harry Garafalo, president of the limited-liability corporation that operates the Dixwell ShopRite, has attempted to lower his store’s food waste and simultaneously give back to the community.

Our long-term goal is to get to zero waste,” Garafalo said. That’s either repurposing, donating or reducing the amount we generate.”

In early January Hudd started calling the Hamden store on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. About a month and a half after that first phone call, Hudd got the OK. The pilot program was finally in motion.

During the second week in March, Hudd embarked on a trial run from ShopRite to the Keefe Center. It was then that she realized the problem of food waste was bigger than she ever thought.

[The food] went into two cars and that’s when it all started flooding me that I may have taken on something larger than I can handle here,” Hudd said.

As Lynch, the produce manager, helped Hudd load the boxes, he explained that he sees food waste at ShopRite as an everyday occurrence.

With bananas, for example, you’re bringing in 30 cases a day, but you’re not selling 30 cases a day and everybody’s not taking a full bunch,” Lynch said. People leave single ones then nobody wants them … Usually, we reduce [the food], but because we’re doing so many other things, we don’t have time to reduce it.”

50% Thrown Out; Millions Could Use It

Samantha Bashaw Photo

Grocery stores such as ShopRite throw out 50 percent of produce while it is still edible, according to the Food Trust. At the same time, the Food Trust reports, 23.5 million Americans do not have access to fresh produce in their communities.

Luz Gonzalez (pictured), a program specialist at the Keefe Center, oversees the food pantry and Hudd’s weekly produce drop off. The pantry is open three days out of the week and sees roughly 60 families pass through.

When Hudd brought that first load of boxes to the Keefe Center in March, Gonzalez said, she was at a loss for words.

I wasn’t expecting so much,” Gonzalez said. I was amazed at the fact that the food was so fresh and looked good. When we display it on the table, it’s amazing. No wonder people get excited when they see it.”

She says that the produce is very popular, and that most of it is taken in the first day.

Millions of food are thrown out every day in the world and in the United States where there is so much hunger,” Gonzalez said. People don’t think we have hunger, especially in different towns like Hamden.”

About 29.7 percent of parents in Hamden reported having trouble providing fruits and vegetables to their family, according to the United Way of Greater New Haven report, Facts & Faces: Food Hardship in Hamden. Nearly 60 percent of residents said they did not know where to get help and food for their family.

At the Keefe Center, Gonzalez sees these statistics come to life.

When I first started working at the pantry, [I thought] that the people who come will be people that run out at the end of the month. … But to my surprise they were working people; people who weren’t making enough money, people that needed to pay the utilities but have no food or if they have food, they have no utilities,” Gonzalez said. I know there are people in those situations still who are not coming to the pantry.”

Paycheck Won’t Cover Fresh Produce

Samantha Bashaw Photo

One of those people used to be Margie Goodman. She has five children, from ages 1 to 14, and works three days a week at Edible Arrangements. At $14 an hour, Goodman can barely provide enough food for her family, so four months ago, she turned to the Keefe Center for help.

In the beginning I was embarrassed,” Goodman said. It took me a long time to actually seek out help … but I don’t care what people think anymore. I have to do what I have to do.”

Goodman’s kids have loved the fresh produce their mom brings home and actually look forward to her monthly run to the food pantry.

They love healthy stuff and I actually lost 40 pounds,” Goodman said. “[My husband and I] try to teach them how important it is to get the things they need and to not be embarrassed about it.”

After one of Hudd’s ShopRite drop-offs, Gonzalez detailed a story about one woman who came to the food pantry and burst into tears when she saw the amount of food they had. Gonzalez said that the woman’s gratitude for fresh produce that she could take back to her family was overwhelming.

It has been a blessing,” Gonzalez said. I just love seeing people’s faces when they see the food.”

Hudd has seen similar responses from her visits to the Keefe Center.

I think the Keefe Center is as stunned as I am; I think we’re all stunned,” Hudd said. I wasn’t expecting this kind of response at all.”

However, with Hudd’s class not meeting every week of the year, the challenge is how she, ShopRite and the Keefe Center are going to keep this program running, and whether they can do anything more.

The food is there, the need for that food is there,” said Julia Giblin, a professor of anthropology who subbed for Hudd one week this summer. It surprised me just how much good food was already considered not sellable. If this was scaled up a bit a ton of food could be redirected to families in need in the community.”

The larger Quinnipiac community may be able to assist.

In the spring, for example, Hudd struggled with fitting the dozens of boxes from ShopRite in her car. However, Quinnipiac’s Office of Student Affairs and Director of Community Service Vincent Contrucci, offered Hudd an eight-passenger van for her weekly runs.

It’s been great,” Hudd said. I can hold all the boxes [with the van] and make one trip. I’m currently at 413 boxes of produce delivered, and we’re hoping to hit 500 by the end of the year.”

Amy Schoenfeld Walker Photo

Hudd has spoken with multiple university administrators to ask for additional resources for the program. She has not received word back yet.

But even if Hudd can get a bigger van and more volunteers, the Keefe Center still has some physical limitations. For example, the center only has two refrigerators and three freezers to hold any spare fruits and vegetables.

For now, Hudd will transport the produce boxes on her own when students can’t assist her, trying to keep the program running smoothly, despite some staffing changes at the grocery store. Julia Giblin helped one week while Hudd was on vacation. Contrucci from student affairs joined in on one trip.

But Hudd is still looking for ways to make the pilot program sustainable.

I’m just talking to anybody who I think can help, hoping that something will come through,” Hudd said. It could end up being much bigger in the long run and that’s my hope.”

Samantha Bashaw Photo

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