The Pandemic has caused several unwanted outcomes, and one such consequence is wastage of farm products. With restaurants and eating joints closed or serving under restrictions, farmers are facing a glut in demand. It has led to massive losses and farm products disposed of as waste.
College students Aidan Reilly and James Kanoff hit upon an innovative idea of connecting farmers to food banks. They created a nonprofit organization FarmLink.
The duo was featured on 3rd hour of TODAY’s and told Al Roker how they created the nonprofit organization FarmLink…
Feeding the Hungry with Surplus
Aidan Reilly and James Kanoff created FarmLink to get the surplus produce of the farmers to the food banks. The food otherwise would have gone to waste, and the duo helped to feed many during the Pandemic.
The Pandemic resulted in liters of dumped milk smashed eggs, and vegetable food waste all sent to lagoons and manure pits. South Florida is better known for catering to the demands in the Eastern part of the United States.
Farmers here were plowing perfectly ripe vegetables back into the soil. The nation saw images of hundreds of liters of milk going to waste.
Real Crusaders of Modern Times
Why not find a way to use surplus produce in a better way? How can you be dumping 3.7 million gallons of milk in one day, questioned Kanoff. And all this when the lines at the food bank kept growing longer and longer.
Thus the concept of FarmLink was born. It asked farmers and farm producers across the nation to pass on their surplus to FarmLink. Their call did not go unnoticed. Thousands of eggs, tons of potatoes, and onions are carefully sorted and then sent to food banks across the nation every day.
The Bible prohibits food from being wasted, and these modern-day Samaritans are following the teachings of Jesus in the right earnest.
John 6:12
And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” — Jn 6:12
And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.”
This is a really cool group of college students. Going to great lengths to make sure food isn’t wasted and rather used is a good thing. You know the saying, “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” Let us know if you’ve heard of any stories like this. Share with us in our comments section. Go do good…it’s in you!!
