Blog Archives - Table to Table

The Partners for Health Foundation awards Table to Table a $50,000 grant.

Editor’s note: This article first appeared on montclairlocal.com.

The Partners for Health Foundation has awarded Table to Table, New Jersey’s first and largest food rescue nonprofit, a generous $50,000 grant in support of its 26-year-old mission to reduce food waste and feed individuals and families facing food insecurity throughout northern New Jersey. Table to Table was one of 12 organizations that received grants from the foundation to support direct services and general operations to address health inequities throughout northern Essex County.

“We are incredibly grateful for this generous grant, which supports Table to Table’s mission to keep quality food out of landfills, and provide nourishment to children, families, seniors and veterans who worry about getting their next meal,” said Heather Thompson, executive director, Table to Table. “We are eager to expand our food donor, community partner, and volunteer networks in northern Essex County, allowing us to rescue and deliver more healthy, perishable food that helps improve the lives and health of residents throughout northern Essex County.” Thompson concluded.

“We’re proud to stand alongside nonprofits like Table to Table that make a real difference every day — expanding access to the resources people need to thrive,” said Pam Scott, Executive Director, Partners for Health Foundation. “We look forward to a productive and meaningful partnership,” Scott concluded.

Reliable access to free, nutritious food plays a critical role in individual, family, and community health. It lowers risk of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic diseases that are more prevalent among individuals facing food insecurity; and healthy food access supports stronger academic/work performance and relieves stress for families facing financial constraints. Unfortunately, the healthiest foods are often the most expensive, and many traditional pantries primarily offer only shelf-stable items, making it difficult for people relying on these distributions to sustain a healthy diet. Table to Table helps bridge this gap by delivering fresh food, a majority of which is fresh vegetables, fruit, and dairy.

Table to Table is New Jersey’s first and largest food rescue nonprofit, bridging the gap between food being wasted and people facing food insecurity. We bring rescued fresh, nutritious food to 303 community partners, including social service organizations, pantries, shelters, fresh produce markets and centralized distribution hubs. Food is provided free of charge. Through this, Table to Table touches a diversity of those in need, including families, children, veterans, and older adults, making good nutrition accessible while serving as a stimulus for other longer-term benefits. Since 1999 we have rescued more than 120,700 tons of nutritious food—enough for 241,400,846 million meals—and delivered it to our neighbors in need, saving over 544 metric tons of methane from entering the environment.

Related:

Table to Table received a $50,000 grant from the Partners for Health Foundation.

Editor’s note: This article first appeared on montclairlocal.com.

Related:

Editor’s note: This article first appeared on NorthJersey.com. MSN.com aggregated it to their news website. Click here to read the rest of the article.

In many ways, Veer Agarwal is your typical North Jersey high schooler. A rising senior at Livingston High, he plays tennis with his friends, watches soccer on the weekends, and is preparing his college applications.

But few are the high schoolers who have started statewide initiatives to rescue food from restaurants and deliver it to food pantries, as Agarwal has done for the last year with his project, ResQFood. To date, ResQFood has partnered with almost two dozen restaurants and the food rescue nonprofit Table to Table to complete over 380 rescues, resulting in over 20,000 pounds, or roughly $100,000, of food donated to those in need.

Agarwal solicited the help of Livingston High classmates Jack Liu, Parth Jain, Armaan Mishra and Leo Feng to build out a website, launch social media and support rescues. But growing the project beyond that required Agarwal and ResQFood to secure some documentation. He turned to Table to Table, which coordinates food rescues in five North Jersey counties.

“It was only after I had the support of Table to Table behind me that I had the confidence to pursue these restaurants,” he said.

Related:

What’s better than a refreshing glass of lemonade?

Is there anything better than a delicious, refreshing glass of ice-cold lemonade on a hot summer day?

While lemonade is a delicious way to quench your thirst, it’s also a way to help feed others who do not have regular access to nutritious food.

Two northern New Jersey siblings from Westfield donated enough proceeds from their lemonade stands last year to rescue enough healthy food for 200 meals!

“Thank you for all of your efforts to rescue food and feed those who need it,” the children’s parents said in a note to us.

Manning a lemonade stand is just one easy way kids can volunteer to help Table to Table. Volunteering with Table to Table is easy. We offer many opportunities, including with our I-Rescue app!

If you’re interested in helping Table to Table in a way we haven’t mentioned, including hosting a lemonade stand and donating the proceeds, we’d love to hear from you.

Please visit our volunteer page, complete the form, and someone will get in touch with you. Thank you for your interest in our mission.

Volunteer

Table to Table is New Jersey’s first and largest food rescue nonprofit, bridging the gap between food being wasted and people facing food insecurity. We work with food businesses of all types to rescued fresh, nutritious surplus food, and deliver it for free to 300+ social service organizations, pantries, shelters, community produce markets and centralized distribution hubs. Through our community partnerships, Table to Table reaches families, children, veterans, older adults, and others in need, improving food security, nutritional access, and better health. Since 1999 we have rescued more than 120,700 tons of nutritious food—enough for 241,400,846 million meals—and delivered it to our neighbors in need, while also saving over 544 metric tons of methane from impacting climate change by preventing food waste.

Editor’s note: The above screenshot of photos first appeared in 201 Magazine’s June 2025 issue.

201 Magazine ran a piece in their “be social” section about the 15th anniversary of the Behind The Seams fashion show May 27. The event raised $320,000, enough to fund the rescue of nutritious food for 3.2 million healthy meals for our hungry neighbors.

Related:

An estimated 126 million pounds of food, worth about $400 million, will go uneaten this during the Fourth of July weekend. That is about 20 percent of the food meant to be eaten this Independence Day, according to ReFED, a national nonprofit working to end food waste by leveraging data and connecting individuals to help foster large-scale change within the food ecosystem. ReFED calculated the amount based on a survey conducted by the American Farm Bureau Federation.

The most popular, and costly, type of wasted food is beef. More than half of the methane emissions from wasted food on Independence Day come from beef, according to ReFED. These emissions are equal to the emissions generated by powering 50,000 American homes for a year. Other high-waste foods include ice cream, pork, and potato chips.

The waste associated with the Independence Day holiday does not just occur when consumers fail to eat it. It can be measured throughout the food ecosystem lifecycle. The wasted used to produce this food can supply about 14 days of residential waster use throughout the state of California, according to ReFED.

Fourth of July Food Waste Reduction Tips

Buy only what you need: Plan out your meal ahead of time. That way, you only buy what you know people want. You also avoid impulse buying. You reduce food waste and save money!
Storage is key: Explore the best way to store different types of produce to keep them fresh for as long as possible – learn what goes on the counter, what belongs in bags, what should or shouldn’t be pre-washed. And don’t forget about your freezer. Many foods can be frozen for later use, like rolls and hamburger and hot dog meat.
Love your leftovers: Make sure you eat your leftovers. Instead of letting them droop in the back of the fridge, try folding them into new meals. Got some roasted veggies from last night’s dinner? Throw them into an omelet for breakfast or a salad for lunch. Leftover chicken? Shred it up and make tacos or toss it into a stir-fry.

Chef David Burke, a longtime Table to Table supporter and trustee emeritus who served on our Board of Directors for many years, will be inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame called Burke a “renowned restaurateur and culinary innovator” in its induction announcement. Burke said he was proud to be named an inductee.

“This is a really big deal for me,” Burke said in an announcement posted to his Instagram page. “As a proud Jersey boy, few things have ever pleased me more than this Hall of Fame honor. It’s humbling to be included amongst the incredible range of intellect, talent, and skills that are positioned New Jersey on the world’s stage as the source of an extraordinary degree of innovation.”

Table to Table honored Burke during our 2021 Chefs Gala for “more than 20 years of unwavering support that he so graciously has provided in helping us live out our mission to rescue fresh food and deliver it to organizations that feed our hungry neighbors.”

Burke is one of the best known and most respected chefs in modern American cuisine. He is a pioneer in American cooking and has been recognized internationally for his revolutionary techniques and for building a successful restaurant empire.

Burke will be inducted into the Hall of Fame’s Enterprise category. Other inductees into that category include: Lawrence R. Inserra Jr., chairman and CEO of Inserra Supermarkets Inc., another longtime Table to Table supporter, Frank Bisignanno, CEO and chairman of the board of Fiserv and the current commissioner of the U.S. Social Security Administration, Zygmunt “Zygi” Wilf, co-owner of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings.

The 17 inductees will be honored at the 17th Annual New Jersey Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Nov. 21 at The Arena at American Dream in East Rutherford.

The United States’ food system is broken. David Cutrona is doing his part to fix it.

Our June Volunteer Spotlight is showcasing Cutrona and his work as an I-Rescue App volunteer. He has been volunteering with us since January.

“I volunteer because our food system is broken,” Cutrona said. “Table to Table’s food rescue missions allow individuals to help tackle this large-scale problem.”

Volunteering Like David Cutrona Does

Cutrona rescues healthy, nutritious food from grocery stores, farmers markets, wholesalers, and other food service businesses and delivers it to churches, senior centers, daycares, and smaller nonprofits, who distribute it to the individuals they serve.

Signing up to be a Table to Table volunteer is easy. Julie Kinner, Table to Table’s Vice President of Operations, said all you have to do is download the Table to Table I-Rescue app, powered by Food Rescue Hero, on your phone to become a food rescue hero! You’ll complete a simple registration process and volunteer agreement, and then you can get started. The app walks you through every step!

Volunteers of all ages are welcome to volunteer with our food rescue program. However, the driver must have a valid driver’s license, and a valid vehicle registration and insurance.

Since we launched, more than 350 volunteers have completed more than 9,600 rescues and delivered more than 2 million pounds of donated food that would have been thrown away.

As New Jersey’s first and largest food rescue, our mission is to reduce food waste and provide nourishment to our food-insecure neighbors throughout North Jersey. We rescue millions of pounds of fresh food annually that would otherwise be wasted and end up in landfills, contributing to climate change. We deliver it to partner organizations who support the nearly 1 million people in our area who need it most.

Together, we can reduce food waste in our home and make a positive impact on the planet. Every little bit of effort—no matter how small—leads to change.

Related: Alpha Gamma Delta: Volunteer Spotlight
Read: Agarwal Addressed Food Waste With New ResQFood Program
Related: Ways You Can Help Table to Table Right Now
Q&A with V.P. of Operations, Julie Kinner

More students are working to end hunger and reduce food waste.

Students at Godwin and Highland Elementary schools in Midland Park were honored with the Bernard and Geraldine Segal Foundation Award for Student Philanthropy in support of our Bag Lunch, Help a Bunch initiative.

Bag a Lunch participants bring a bagged lunch to school for a day, a week, or more and donate what they would have spent on lunch to help us reduce food waste and help feed those who need it most.

“What an impressive team! The students of Godwin and Highland Elementary schools have stepped up as true community champions,” said Heather Thompson, executive director of Table to Table. “Thanks to their incredible support of Bag a Lunch, Help a Bunch, we’ll be able to rescue food for more than 23,000 meals—reducing food waste and bringing nourishment to thousands of our New Jersey neighbors. Their leadership is a powerful reminder that the future is in great hands.”

Through the kindness of the foundation, a challenge grant of $30,000 among all Bag a Lunch, Help a Bunch participating schools in Northern New Jersey was established. Of the dozens of schools that participated this school year, Godwin and Highland Elementary schools were the top fundraisers. The funds raised will rescue and deliver enough food for 23,000 healthy meals for those in need throughout Northern New Jersey. That number, along with funds raised by the other schools, was generously doubled by the Bernard and Geraldine Segal Foundation.

Schools like yours can join us in our mission to reduce food waste and relieve hunger in New Jersey! We offer several school-focused programs, including:

Student-led fundraising through our signature Bag a Lunch, Help a Bunch program
Cafeteria food rescues through our I-Rescue Lunch program
Food drives: We especially encourage produce and holiday turkey drives!

Click here for more information about our school-based initiatives.

Every little bit counts.

Second-graders at Anna C. Scott Elementary School in Leonia held a fresh produce drive for Table to Table recently. One by one students packed fresh apples, oranges, bananas, strawberries, avocadoes, and other produce into boxes.

Slowly, the boxes filled up and by the end of the event, the students had donated hundreds of pounds of produce. Students also drew inspirational messages on the boxes urging people to donate more fruit and vegetables when they can.

A Table to Table volunteer brought the food to the Parent Teacher Association of the Fairmount School in Hackensack, where they distributed it.

It was the second time students at Anna C. Scott Elementary School hosted a produce drive for Table to Table.

Students from Anna C. Scott Elementary School in Leonia donated hundreds of pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to Table to Table recently

Schools like yours can join us in our mission to reduce food waste and relieve hunger in New Jersey! We offer several school-focused programs, including: