Small forklifts weaved through the wholesale produce market in Jerusalem’s Givat Shaul neighborhood on a recent early morning, moving laden pallets as vans and trucks waited to take produce to their grocery stores and restaurants.

Wholesale storeowners waved lists of the day’s recipients, motioning to their forklift drivers, who cried out to one another in Arabic. The same families, both Jewish and Arab, have often worked together for several generations.

Cartons of tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers that had arrived the evening before from all over the country were stacked six feet high, next to bulk containers of melons and huge pumpkins.

With the exception of a few hours in the afternoon, this sprawling enclave near the city entrance thrums around the clock.

It is also home to the logistics center and warehouse of Jerusalem Food Rescuers (Metzilot HaMazon), an NGO founded by social activists in 2019 that seeks to cut food insecurity in the capital, where 39% of families and 51% of children live below the poverty line, according to Ministry of Welfare figures.

During this reporter’s visit, a couple of dozen volunteers, all wearing orange vests, were busy in the warehouse sorting surplus vegetables by suitability for fresh produce or cooking. Waste suitable for animal feed or composting is also set aside, though mechanisms for its distribution need further development.

Food rescue by charitable organizations is long established. Leket, Israel’s leading food rescue organization and food bank, collects surplus food from farmers and leftover meals from institutions such as military bases and hotels. Latet, a nonprofit that distributes $30 million worth of food annually, picks it up from the big food conglomerates. Both distribute through NGO networks.

By contrast, Jerusalem Food Rescuers is an urban organization serving only the city. It currently salvages seven to 10 tons of food per week, 70% from the wholesale market, most of whose 20 or so businesses donate surplus, and the rest from a food aid organization with excess produce, a couple of bakeries, and a farm. It distributes through NGOs and directly to the public, often through pop-up markets, benefiting an estimated 1,000 Jerusalemites weekly.

Now, the organization wants to reform a poorly coordinated system linking surplus food suppliers, distributors and the city administration — one in which the city pays huge sums to transport and bury food waste while many residents struggle to eat properly.

First stop: City Hall

The first step was the launch of Israel’s first Urban Food Policy Forum at City Hall this month, with around 70 people from across the local food landscape. At the event, Mayor Moshe Lion signed the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, joining over 300 cities working on healthier, more equitable, and more........

© The Times of Israel