One in eight households does not have access to a sufficient amount of food. To combat hunger here in northern Indiana, Cultivate Food Rescue aims to make a difference in the lives of many who don’t have access to the necessary resources.

In multiple counties, including St. Joseph, Elkhart, and Marshall, a large number of people don’t have the proper funds or resources to maintain heavy spending on food and other perishable items. In South Bend alone, one in four households is below the poverty line. However, the volunteer-driven association Cultivate Food Rescue is here for them. Cultivate Food Rescue offers free meals to anyone who needs a hand with supporting themselves or their families. With up to three free meals a day per person, Cultivate Food Rescue have helped thousands of people. Cultivate Food Rescue takes excess, quality food from corporations that are not in use and creates meals to give to people in need. They initially took flight in 2016 and rapidly grew to have a massive impact on the surrounding communities. In their first year, Cultivate Food Rescue saved over 42,000 pounds of food. Within five years, this number expanded remarkably to 1.43 million pounds of food rescued. Cultivate Food Rescue has significant ambitions for the future, and they do not plan to slow down any time soon; they aspire to recover 20 million pounds in the next ten years.

According to its website, Cultivate Food Rescue obtains much of its food from grocery stores that do not sell much of specific products or need shelf space. Their organization takes this perfectly good, wasted food and gives it to people affected by poverty. Not only does the wasted food take away from people in need, but it also has a long-lasting effect on the environment. According to Cultivate Food Rescue, 133 billion pounds of food are wasted in the U.S. each year on average. This wasted food has a significant negative impact on the global environment.

Cultivate Food Rescue is entirely driven by volunteers, which means anyone can participate or donate to the cause. All donations go directly to helping people in need in the local communities. In 2022 alone, over 5,000 volunteers prepared and packaged 337,000 meals. Volunteers can choose what they want to help out with, whether it be packing meals, making meals or being a rescue driver. With the consistent growth of the hunger problem across the world, small communities need to band together to help give back to our communities.

For more information, visit cultivatefoodrescue.com