And, better yet: The morsels served to those populations are made from ingredients that would have otherwise been thrown away.
“In recent weeks, our local shelters and food programs have been missing donations of prepared foods previously filled by tech companies and catering services,” says Food Runners’ Founder Mary Risely in a press release before waxing on their fresh partnership with Chef Corboy. “Our new partnership with Chef Corboy will allow Food Runners to continue serving the hungry in San Francisco. At the same time, we can provide new job opportunities to those who were laid off due to COVID-19 related closures.
The produce and other goods needed to procure these meals are saved from grocers and vendors around SF via a team of volunteers, with each person given both masks and gloves, led by Les Tso, Operations Manager. Surprisingly enough, there’s still no shortage of prematurely discard sustenance — despite the long queues and those sensationalized headlines suggesting a food system collapse: “Despite long lines at the grocery store, there is still an incredible amount of produce, bread, and other goods that would otherwise go to waste without Food Runners,” notes Tso.
Alas, this means Chef Corboy is having to embrace his creativity when developing the daily menus, which, by the very nature of food waste, is never quite the same from day-to-day.
We don’t know the ingredients we’ll have until the food donations arrive,” says Corboy. “We organize quickly and strategize to make the most nutritious meals possible using as many of the raw ingredients as we can.” For example: a few Sundays prior, Corboy and his team prepared vegetable wraps, mushroom soup, egg and cheese sandwiches, strawberry banana bread pudding, and more… all of which were ideated and contextualized on the spot at their current working kitchen inside the Waller Center.
As of now, Food Runners is expected to continue serving those most affected by the COVID-19 crisis until things settle—serving over 20,000 meals to in-need San Franciscans each week.
// For more insights on Food Runners’ history and work in the Bay Area, as well as information on how to become a volunteer yourself, visit foodrunners.org; information on how to donate your time, money, and, of course, food can be found at the embedded links; call (415) 929-1866 for other yet-answered questions. Photography by Stephanie Meyers.
