|
|
|||
|
|||
Over the past 10 years, we at PMQ’s Pizza Magazine have spent time gathering and reporting information to help you become more successful pizzeria operators. In helping ourselves, sometimes we probably get so caught up in what we’re doing that we forget how lucky we really are to have so much when there are so many people in our country that have so little. According to USA Today, there were nearly 800,000 homeless people in the United States in 2005, and that doesn’t include those unfortunates that are displaced every year due to natural disasters such as fires, hurricanes and earthquakes. With all the great things that surround us, it often slips our minds how much help we, the pizza industry, could provide to help these desperate people in their times of need.
America’s Second Harvest is a great example of how you can get involved and help in a big way. According to Eric Davis, the director of food sourcing programs for America’s Second Harvest, “We supply people with more than two billion pounds of food each year.” And he said nearly 25 million different people get served at their more than 50,000 soup kitchens and charitable agencies across the country. More than nine million children and three million seniors were served last year alone.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina was one of the biggest catastrophes in American history, displacing more than one million people. “We sent about 82 million pounds of food to the Gulf Coast after Katrina,” said Ross Fraser, media relations manager for America’s Second Harvest. Fraser said it’s easy to get involved, “They can go to our website, secondharvest.org, and on the homepage there is a spot where you can enter your zip code. From there, you can identify the food bank that belongs to our organization in your area. You will always find someone who needs you.”
Davis said about donating pizza, “Typically anything that hasn’t been served and is still packaged can be donated to a food group. If the pizza has been out on the buffet line, we can’t take that. The main thing I want to be sure of is that the product has been maintained at a proper temperature. If they’re donating non-perishables, such as breadsticks or bread, that can be picked up by a volunteer with our organization. If they’re donating items that need to be frozen or refrigerated, we can make sure it’s picked up in a refrigerated truck,” he said.
In the 1960’s, food banks were a relatively new thing to America. John van Hengel, the father of America’s Second Harvest, received government assistance in the 1970’s, and soon his organization became the clearinghouse for national food corporations, which donate more than 400 million pounds each year. Today, local donors, such as pizza restaurants and private citizens wanting to lend a hand, play the largest part in feeding homeless and downtrodden Americans by donating nearly 850 million pounds to America’s Second Harvest annually.
To find our more about America’s Second Harvest and to get involved in their program, please visit their website at secondharvest.org.