How Leket Israel Feeds 400,000 People a Week — and How to Replicate It Where You Live | Joseph Gitler

Every week in the United States, roughly 80 million pounds of food is thrown away by restaurants, hotels, farms, and grocery stores. Not spoiled food — food that's perfectly safe and nutritious but doesn't meet cosmetic standards, arrived in surplus, or passed an arbitrary sell-by date. Meanwhile, millions of people in those same cities don't have reliable access to enough to eat.   Joseph Gitler decided it was unacceptable. Leket Israel now rescues and redistributes food at a scale that feeds 400,000 people every week. Surplus produce becomes packaged meals. Hotel banquet leftovers reach families the same day. The logistics required to do that reliably — and with dignity — are genuinely extraordinary.  This conversation is about how he built it — and how you can help start something like it where you live. Whether you want to volunteer, push for change in your own city, or build a food-rescue effort from scratch, Gitler breaks down what it actually takes to replicate the model in your community.

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