Fancy Food Show Donates Over 100,000 Pounds of Food to City Harvest

20th Year that Specialty Food Industry has Helped Feed Hungry New Yorkers

The 55th Summer Fancy Food Show donated more than 100,000 pounds of specialty foods and beverages to City Harvest, one of New York’s leading anti-hunger organizations, at the end of the three-day trade event.

This is the 20th year Fancy Food Show exhibitors at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center are giving back to New York City through the efforts of the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade Inc., the show’s organizer, and City Harvest.

“Our exhibitors have a long tradition of giving back,” said Ann Daw, NASFT’s president. “Amid economic hardship for many New Yorkers, this year we are especially eager to help make up gaps in supplies at food pantries and feeding programs.”

The food rescue is an event in itself. On June 30 at 4 p.m., as the last buyers left the show floor, more than 300 City Harvest volunteers, many from local businesses and neighborhood groups, got to work and navigated the aisles to pick up the specialty food left over from the show’s 2,300 exhibitors from the U.S. and abroad.

City Harvest delivered this food to many of the 600 community programs it serves throughout New York City, including Greenpoint, which together feed 260,000 people each week. The Fancy Food Show donation is the organization’s largest collection of perishable food from a special event. “This will allow City Harvest to deliver the kind of food that soup kitchens and food pantries are rarely able to provide to the hungry New Yorkers they serve,” said Jilly Stephens, executive director. “We are grateful for the generosity of the NASFT and show vendors as well as the hard work of volunteers dedicated to rescuing the food safely.”