How the Food Industry Dishes Out Charity
Since the economy is still inching its way toward recovery, there are many people who can’t afford a decent meal – in a restaurant or at home. In one way or another, many restaurants and food companies are figuring out ways to give back and to help those who need it. Here are some creative ways that the food industry is nurturing both body and soul.
At a New York restaurant called Serendipity 3, customers who can afford it might choose to buy a $295 burger, Gothamist reports. For that price, patrons get a patty made with “Japanese Waygu beef infused with 10-herb white truffle butter, seasoned with Salish Alderwood smoked Pacific sea salt.” It’s topped with cheddar cheese that’s been aged in a cave for a year and a half, a fried quail egg, and shaved black truffles. The bun –a white truffle-buttered Campagna Roll—is finished off with crème fraiche, caviar, and a blini, all held in place with a tooth pick that’s made of gold and encrusted with diamonds. Lest you feel guilty for indulging in this edible paradigm of decadence, you should know that the proceeds from the sale of the burger go to the Bowery Mission, a charity that helps the homeless, the hungry, and at-risk youth in New York City.
Allison Sosna and Justin Peregoy are two chefs in Washington, DC who have each left a promising, prominent career in the area’s profitable restaurants for food-based jobs with local charities. Sosna works as a lead chef for the Washington Jesuit Academy, a job that she got through a charity called DC Central Kitchen. She took the position because she was “looking for a way to make food more meaningful in people’s lives,” she said. The academy is a charter school for low-income boys, and her last day is next week. As for Peregoy, he is now the manager of prepared food at Martha’s Table, as he has been since 2010. “We always strive to have our food be nutritious as well as tasting good,” Ann Brookover, the Director of Development for Martha’s Table, told BestFoodNet. Brookover credits Peregoy with achieving this goal, mentioning that kids are now listing healthier foods as favorites. “It’s not a scientific survey,” she said, “but the little kids say that their favorite food is broccoli.”
In the UK, The Guardian recently reported a story about a bill that would require supermarkets and restaurants to give their unused food to charity to cut down on waste. In the United States, an organization called City Harvest does similar work. According to the organization’s website, it rescues an estimated 100,000 pounds of food each day and works with approximately 600 programs in New York City.
