North Jersey Student’s Food Rescue Initiative Has Saved And Donated Over 20,000 Pounds

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.

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:

• Jersey Proud: Livingston HS Student on a Mission to End Hunger
• Agarwal Addressed Food Waste With New ResQFood Program
• How One Livingston Teen Is Rescuing More Than Just Leftovers
• Veer Agarwal: January Volunteer Spotlight