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Barbara (Heitman) Bronstein, J76, at the Houston Second Servings distribution site.

Glean Cuisine

Filling stomachs, not landfills, with surplus food

The orange, green, and black containers are stacked six and seven high on a counter in the downtown Houston location of Snap Kitchen, a fast-growing Texas-based chain that sells environmentally sustainable chef-prepared meals. There’s chimichurri grilled beef. Grass-fed lamb lasagna. A bison burger served with an over-easy egg. Normally, each individually packaged meal would cost around eight dollars. But these ones aren’t for sale. Because they’ve almost reached their expiration date, they’ve been pulled from the shelves and stacked in a corner. Nico Ponce, the tanned thirty-something general manager, who has tattoos covering both forearms, explains that his customers prefer buying food that was recently prepared. Anything still on the shelf after a couple of days gets tossed, even if it’s still perfectly safe to eat.

Today, though, instead of getting tossed, Snap Kitchen’s leftovers are being picked up by a “food rescue” group, Second Servings of Houston. They’ll be loaded onto a refrigerated truck and driven a few miles to the Impact Houston Church of Christ, which will distribute the meals to people who need them. Founded last year by Barbara (Heitman) Bronstein, J76, Second Servings collects prepared food from stores, hotels, and event centers around the Houston area and delivers it to soup kitchens and homeless shelters.

Bronstein, a retired marketing professional who moved to Houston in 1983, came up with the idea for Second Servings after noticing how much food was left behind at the charity fundraisers she sometimes attended. “Corporations will buy tables for an event, but end up not sending anyone,” she says. “The caterers end up with so much extra food.”

Despite its strong economy, Texas has one of the highest hunger rates in the country, with eighteen percent of the population living in food-insecure households, those without access to adequate nutritious food (14.6 percent is the average nationwide). In Houston, food insecurity affects an estimated one in four children. Yet according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, thirty-one percent of the food in America goes uneaten.

When Bronstein heard these stark statistics, a lightbulb went off. What if she could bring the freshly prepared food left behind at events like the Jewish Federation luncheon to families dealing with food insecurity? She began driving around Houston, meeting with caterers, hotel operators, and managers at stores like Snap Kitchen. “It’s such a simple concept,” she says. “People understand that there are a lot of leftovers, and people understand that there are hungry people. Transportation has been the challenge—getting the food from point A to point B. There’s a simple solution—pick it up and drop it off.”

Working with Impact Houston and others, Bronstein has been arranging to pick up food after catered events since 2013. To save on costs, and to make sure the food remains fresh, Second Servings doesn’t warehouse anything; food goes straight to the distribution site.

Of course, Bronstein has to follow an array of federal, state, and local ordinances about food safety. She can’t pick up food if it’s been part of a self-serve buffet, and she can only accept food from licensed businesses—no, you can’t donate the leftovers of your family dinner. Last year she received a certificate in food safety from the city health department.

Food donors often worry about their legal liability. “There are some misconceptions,” Bronstein says. “People think, ‘Oh, I’m going to get sued if someone gets sick.’ ” In fact, she tells them, food donors are protected by federal and state Good Samaritan laws, except in the case of intentional misconduct or gross negligence.

Though barely a year old, Second Servings is growing fast. Its first big break came in February 2015, when Hilton Americas–Houston, the city’s largest hotel, signed on for a regular weekly donation that typically feeds one hundred to three hundred people. Other hotels have followed their lead. On top of that, the organization has received all five grants it applied for, including one from United Way that is funding a pilot collaboration with Meals on Wheels. The idea is to have the same refrigerated trucks that bring food to homebound seniors in the morning make deliveries for Second Servings in the afternoon. Bronstein hopes to raise enough money to buy a refrigerated van and hire a driver to reach more charities.

But nothing could be more popular than the Snap Kitchen deliveries, at least among diners at Impact Houston. The meals have “developed quite a following over there,” Bronstein says. “They love getting chef-prepared food.”

Michael Hardy is a Houston-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in Texas Monthly, The American Scholar, and the Boston Globe.

 
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