Community Action House is on a mission to make sure that no food goes to waste. The community-driven nonprofit is known for their membership-only food club, which makes healthy food accessible and affordable for people with low incomes.
CEO Scott Rumpsa said they get their food from local restaurants, donors and markets, saving them from landfills.
However, he said they know there’s more food that goes to waste.
“Last year, we rescued over 1.2 million pounds of food that would have otherwise gone to waste, and we shared it with our food club here, but also with sharing it out with local food access partners in the Holland-Zeeland region,” Rumpsa said during an interview with FOX 17 on Tuesday afternoon. “Right now, we’re really excited to be expanding that even further in partnership with Ottawa Food at the Ottawa County Health Department.”
Community Action House in Holland says they rescued 1.2M pounds of food last year from restaurants/markets that would’ve gone to landfills.
— Lauren Edwards (@LaurenEdwardsTV) May 16, 2023
Food insecurity impacts 8-9 % of ppl in the area.
So they’re expanding their food rescue service all over Ottawa Co using an app 🤳 @FOX17 pic.twitter.com/ldB3ADGHKf
Through ARPA funding that Ottawa Food received, C.A.H. is able to expand its Lakeshore Food Rescue services to Hudsonville, Allendale, Georgetown, Grand Haven and Coopersville. They’re developing an app that volunteers can use to alert them as to where food excess is available.
“It’s kind of like Uber Eats for volunteers who care about food and care about their community,” Rumpsa said. “So if they sign up as a volunteer, some mornings they might get a ping and say ‘Hey, 15 minutes away from you, this restaurant is willing to donate a few extra bags of food that they have little extra of.'”
So, the volunteer picks it up, he said, and delivers it to a nearby pantry.
The program has been successful in 15 other communities across the country, he said, including Virginia, Pittsburgh and Ohio. Rumpsa’s hoping that it works in Holland too, considering food insecurity impacts 8-9% of its residents, he said.
“People of all incomes do call this place home and many do struggle with food insecurity as the cost of their essentials — of housing, of healthcare, childcare, transportation — have grown just as much as their food cost,” Rumpsa said. “And often food is the first thing to be cut.”
So, C.A.H. is hoping that people will sign up to be volunteers to help keep food accessible and on people’s dinner tables.
“We are aware as an entity of just how much good food, food that any of us would be glad to eat, does go to waste in our community just like any other. And, that’s a challenge. ” Rumpsa said. “When our community chooses to show up as volunteers, that choose to join in and take a best practice approach to issues like this, that we can actually solve. Less food going to waste and more food going to access sites so that everyone in our community can have what they need to thrive.”
***To volunteer or learn more, click here.***
