Food Rescuers: Jerusalemites helping save edibles from the trash heap

There are plenty of lessons to be learned from the coronavirus era. We are talking life lessons  – not dictates handed down by the politicians – and changes we can make in our lifestyle which could benefit us, others around us, and the fragile state of our planet.

As draconian restrictions were placed on our freedom of movement for two or three years, it became more difficult to access basic commodities in stores, including edibles. Food security became one of the key issues, and people began examining alternative ways of keeping their families well nourished. 

That was explained to me at the time, in words of one syllable, by a resident of Ein Kerem whose ramshackle-looking abode was surrounded by a moderately sized piece of land crammed with lettuces, cabbages, potatoes, cauliflowers, peppers, you name it. “Yes, food security is a very important matter,” concurs Daniella Seltzer when we meet up at the Wholesale Market in Givat Shaul.

Thirtysomething Seltzer is co-founder – along with Itay Peled – of the Food Rescuers initiative which, as the name suggests, saves tons of perfectly usable fruits and vegetables delivered to the market which are deemed to be below par, at least in aesthetic terms. The produce is sifted through by teams of enthused volunteers before being shipped out to various locations around Jerusalem – west and east – where locals can lay their hands on fresh healthy foodstuff, gratis.

The willing helpers were hard at it in their corner of the market a few days ago as Seltzer told me about her latest plans for expanding the program so that more Jerusalemites with meager financial resources can keep their kitchens reasonably well stocked and lay tasty wholesome food on their family table.

In fact, there appears to be so much more to be gained from preventing food being summarily trashed and lost to consumers. Mother Nature’s bounty, Seltzer believes, particularly when it is proffered communally, can provide even more added value. “It facilitates interfaces between people, and partnership,” she suggests. “I feel that when people come together, there are more places of mutual nourishment.” That infers spiritual-emotional enrichment, as well as simply keeping body and mind in the same place. 

That spirit of togetherness, and the realization that we share the same fate as well as the same spot on terra firma, says Seltzer, were placed in sharp unforgiving focus during the pandemic. 

“There was a lot of need for food across the city, and there was a lot food here in the market that could be saved.” That propagated socially binding ripples every which way. “It spawned a sort of network of residents, and heads of communities all over the city, in the east and west, young people, older people, secular and haredi Jews, who came together to nurture this web.” Sounds just the ticket for the current emotional morass as the missiles continue to fly, and the hostages and their loved ones wait for salvation. 

It is, says Seltzer, very much a matter of getting the word out to ever-widening circles of the local human fabric, and basically just making better use of the existing infrastructure which has been doing such sterling work in recent years. The food is there at our fingertips, just waiting to be picked up and used for our next meal. 

Those who warn that the Earth cannot feed any more people should take stock of some of the startling relevant UN figures. An estimated 17% of total global food production is said to be wasted in households, in the food service, and in the retail sector as a whole. In 2022, between 691 and 783 million people faced serious nutrition challenges. And, shockingly, food that is lost and wasted accounts for an incredible 38% of total energy usage in the global food system. 

That, of course, can have a detrimental knock-on effect on the environment, the quality of the air we breathe, and climate change. And all this while we struggle to deal with the paralyzing pain and grief of the past three weeks.

The logistical issues of saving food

THERE ARE also testing logistics to be faced right now. 

“There weren’t many workers here last week,” Seltzer notes as we walked around the market. There was also far less merchandise delivered, due to the lack of available drivers and shortage of personnel to go out to the fields and greenhouses to pick and pack the produce. 

“The Arab workers weren’t allowed to come here, or they were afraid of being lynched,” Seltzer observes. We met a market employee from Hebron who did make it to work safely. “I didn’t come here last week,” he says, “but I have a permit to come into Israel and work. So here I am,” he smiles broadly as if all is well with the world. It was a refreshing, if not entirely accurate, notion.

An Arab volunteer with Food Rescuers, 37-year-old Ayman Hawa from the Shuafat refugee camp, had to negotiate some trying shenanigans on his way to Givat Shaul but, thankfully, made it in one piece. I couldn’t help noticing a strange-looking metal contraption Hawas wore around his upper torso. “I had a bad accident a few years ago,” he explains. “Sometimes soldiers see it and they think it may be a bomb. I tell them that if I were going to blow myself up, I would have concealed it, wouldn’t I?” he says with a wry smile.

I was happy to see the soft-spoken multidisciplinary studies Hebrew University student get to Seltzer’s base at the wholesale market, not least because of the hand he had in helping a shnat sherut (pre-army service year) youngster named Nadav prepare the finest apple strudel I have ever tasted. And that from the son of an Austrian Holocaust survivor who has sunk his molars into a strudel or two in his time, in Vienna. “The pastry and apples didn’t cost a penny,” Nadav adds after I compliment him. “The pastry comes from a local restaurant that was going to throw it out one day before its Sell By date; and, of course, the apples come from here.” What a steal.

The vegetable-based lunch I downed before the dessert was also scrumptious: spicy roasted sweet potato and a delightful mish-mash of tomatoes and other veggies I couldn’t rightly identify. It was, naturally, all fresh and free. “It is also what is available,” points out Shauli Morai, whose variegated CV to date includes a stint as digital editor at The Jerusalem Post and lengthy service in the education system.

Immediacy, he says, makes sense on all sorts of levels. “In the old days, if I wanted to eat shakshuka, I’d go out and get all the basic ingredients and make it.” But it wasn’t just about obtaining the requisite fixings. During his 18 months with Food Rescuers, Morai says he has become more aware of food waste and now appreciates what is out there far more. 

“When I go to a supermarket these days, I buy the smallest possible amount. It’s not a matter of being miserly. It’s simply the realization that I don’t need more. Now if I want shakshuka but I don’t have any tomatoes, I’ll make something else to eat, using available raw ingredients. That didn’t used to be part of my thinking.”

AVAILABILITY IS a key component of the Food Rescuers ethos and modus operandi. It also informs plans to expand its operations to ever-increasing circles of the Jerusalem hinterland, with multifarious gains to be obtained. 

“We have to get this food out farther and farther,” says Morai, who coordinates the organization’s marketing logistics. “There is more and more need for it because there are more socioeconomically disadvantaged people.” There is the social cohesion side, too. “If, for example, we send out food to Kiryat Yovel and they set up stalls there, people come from all over the neighborhood for the food. So they meet each other. The community aspect is very important, especially now. And they don’t have to come here. They have everything they need in their own backyard.”

Seltzer says that is core to the program’s activities. She is also constantly looking for additional ways to spread the message, and food, out there as far and wide as possible and to bring more people on board the rescued food train in a collaborative way. “We set up a network of around 15 people from all over Jerusalem. The idea is to provide socioeconomically disadvantaged people – and others who don’t have food security – channels of communication and expression.”

There is a political lobbying subtext here of the best and most human and humane kind. “We’d like these people to have a means for expressing their views and needs to the municipality and the state and the media,” Seltzer explains. “In the old days, I’d get phone calls from journalists asking me to express an opinion on poverty and the lack of food security. I’d tell them I’m not the right person to talk to about that. They should talk to people who experience that situation, who live in those conditions.”

The latest Food Rescuers initiative is an inclusive synergistic affair. “This is a cooperation with ANU – which I come from,” she says. ANU-Making Change is a nonpartisan, nonprofit established in 2014 following a merger between three leading social change organizations – Agenda, Hasdera, and Uru. 

The organization’s website says it aims “to promote a vibrant and influential civil society that works together toward a more inclusive and equitable Israel. Our work is guided by our core values of social justice, economic fairness, shared society, gender equality, and environmental sustainability.”

That is a natural fit for Seltzer and her colleagues in a socially supportive and environmentally friendly endeavor. “We are joining forces in order to involve the Jerusalem Municipality and to demonstrate to them that we can generate more food security based on the resources that already exist in the city.” What could be a more definitive win-win scenario for all concerned? “There is no need to buy more food. There are adequate amounts already available in Jerusalem,” she adds. 

“We need an urban food rescue program that will rescue food, maximize what is available in the wholesale market, and what we can get to people around the city. We wanted to have the municipality’s partnership and that they should say they are interested in food security and they are going to prioritize that in the country’s poorest city.”

Still, Seltzer says she endured a pillar-to-post municipal trial by procrastination in order to elicit some official support for the project. “They sent us to this committee which eventually said, ‘No, this belongs to that department,’” she recalls. “So we went to this lot, and then got passed on to another department and so on.” A happier end was just in sight when the horrors down south erupted. “We were going to sit with all municipal parties concerned when the war started.” 

The regional violence only served to exacerbate an already challenging state of affairs. “Since the war started, we have received a lot more requests for help, from both the east and west of the city,” says Seltzer. “A lot of people, especially elderly folk, were used to receiving cooked food from different organizations, which are now exclusively preparing food for the army. And there were areas in the eastern part where nothing moved – no food products came in or went out.”

FOOD RESCUERS clearly has its work cut out and is looking to respond to the sharp uptick in supply requirements. “Until now, we had around 25 volunteers working three shifts a week. Now we are going to increase that, and work every day.”

Thankfully, there is no shortage of willing souls, and hands, to join the team in Givat Shaul and help provide Jerusalemites with nutritious sustenance. New York-born Marlene Khuri has been helping to sift through the market produce for close to two years now. She says she is invigorated and delighted by her work there. “As an older woman, to see these young people – Daniella, Shaul, and Itay – so dedicated to an idea like this. It gives me a real lift.”

Meanwhile, Rutie, a hale and hearty 78-year-old from Kiryat Yovel, gives off similarly positive vibes. “I feel like I am back in the Scouts,” she laughs as she sorts through an enormous pile of tomatoes that had fallen out of a truck. “It’s wonderful making use of peppers and all sorts of vegetables that are right here.”

Betwixt all the tragedies, and municipal meandering, Seltzer and her cohorts have received some encouraging news. The Food Rescuers team has just been offered a 100 sq.m. storage area to operate from, which will provide much more room for maneuver and, of course, boost the organization’s food-saving capacity manifold. Thus far, the fruit and vegetable sifters have had a 16 sq.m. indoor facility to work from, plus a limited outside area.

Here’s to more food security and togetherness. ❖

Financial assistance is always a boon for the team’s efforts and can be provided here: www.jgive.com/new/he/ils/donation-targets/110645/about

For more information: Daniella Seltzer: 058-515-9555