City Harvest Kicks Off Annual City-Wide Passover Food Drive

Today City Harvest, New York’s first and largest food rescue organization, kicked off its annual city-wide Passover Food Drive, running from April 1 – May 6, 2024.

To collect kosher items for Passover to provide for free to Jewish families in need across New York City who are celebrating the holiday. City Harvest will deliver all food collected during the Passover Food Drive to 23 kosher food programs across the five boroughs that serve kosher-observant community members in neighborhoods. 

More than half a million Jewish New Yorkers struggle to put kosher food on their tables year-round. According to the UJA Federation of New York, eleven percent of Jewish adults with children in New York experience food insecurity. While inflation is cooling, the cost of living in New York City continues to increase at an unsustainable rate. Food, childcare and housing costs remain high, and vital government supports that kept many families afloat during the pandemic expired last year, making it even harder for New Yorkers to afford fresh, nutritious food. Last year, City Harvest’s Passover Food Drive collected over 14,000 pounds of kosher for Passover food.

Thank you to this year’s sponsors, Dr. Praeger’s and Gemiluth Chessed. 

Those interested in participating in the Passover Food Drive can: 

• Run a traditional canned food drive by collecting non-perishable kosher for Passover foods such as tuna, salmon, sardines, canned vegetables, and matzoh, in a central location for pickup by one of City Harvest’s trucks (must be 50 lbs. or above to be picked up). 

• Run an online food drive through our partner #GiveHealthy, by building an online food drive page to share with your community. This allows participants to purchase fresh produce and non-perishable kosher items to be delivered directly to the City Harvest warehouse. 

More information can be found:  https://www.cityharvest.org/fooddrives 

City Harvest

City Harvest is New York’s first and largest food rescue organization, collecting perfectly good food that would otherwise go to waste to help feed the millions of New Yorkers who struggle to put meals on their tables. In over 40 years serving New Yorkers experiencing food insecurity, we have rescued more than one billion pounds of fresh, nutritious food and delivered it—free of charge—to hundreds of food pantries, soup kitchens, community partners, and our own Mobile Markets® across the five boroughs. This year, we will rescue and distribute more than 77 million pounds of nutritious food to our neighbors in need. By redirecting that food to families, we will also prevent the equivalent of more than 20 million kilograms of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. Named one of America’s Top 100 Charities by Forbes, City Harvest also works alongside our community partners to build their capacity, expand nutrition education, and advocate for systems change through effective public policy. Since our founding in 1982, City Harvest has always been there to feed our city—one day, one meal, one New Yorker at a time. To learn more, please visit cityharvest.org.

Photo credit: City Harvest.