Today we’d like to introduce you to Rick Nahmias.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Rick. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was a professional documentary photographer with zero non-profit training in 2009, at the start of the Great Recession. Through walks with my aging dog, I came to realize there was an abundance of fruit going to waste in my neighborhood while lines were growing at food pantries just a couple of miles from my house.
I found out there was a chronic shortage of fresh produce at these pantries, as well as that many of those who are considered food insecure were making ends meet by eating cheap fast foods which are notorious for causing high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. I wondered if connecting this fresh healthy produce that was seemingly everywhere I looked could help alleviate some of the food scarcity and nutrition issues.
I tried an experiment harvesting a friend’s backyard which resulted in over 800 lbs of tangerines and navel oranges being harvested and donated over 3 weeks by just a handful of volunteers. It was an immediate feeling of not just win-win, but win-4, when you factored in all the people who got something out of the arrangement: pantries, volunteers, homeowners, and most importantly those in need.
The first 2 years of Food Forward was very ragtag, and all volunteer run, with a small core of highly dedicated folks who drank the Koolaid with me, and it just took off and grew exponentially. We finally realized the idea (and need) was bigger than us, so we got our own 501.c.3 charitable designation, crowd-sources funds for a van, got a couple of grants to hire staff and were off to the races.
After a few years of just backyard harvesting, we added a Farmers Market Recovery Program that is also volunteer powered. It started at three of LA’s largest weekly markets, Santa Monica, Hollywood and Studio City – and now operates at two dozen weekly markets across two counties. A couple of years after that a Wholesale Recovery Program which instead of collecting produce by the boxful, collects donated produce of over 200 varieties by the pallet or even truckload.
To give some idea of our exponential growth, Food Forward recovery went from 100,000 lbs in total in our first year, to 100,000 on an average day today. Our cost of recovering this fresh produce also is about 1/3 of what your average food back spends to recover an average pound of food. We’ve had the good fortune to engage over 10,000 volunteers since we began and hold over 200 volunteer-powered events every month.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Though this has been the greatest job I’ve ever had, it’s rarely easy, and that is mostly because the need for and the supply of produce along the way has always outstripped our capacity. We are routinely offered more amazing fruits and vegetables than our modest staff, the limited number of vehicles and incredible corps of volunteers can take. And that is always frustrating.
There are an estimated 1 million+ backyard fruit tress in LA County, according to the LA Agriculture Dept, each yielding and average of 300-400 lbs. Even now, with thousand of volunteers and homeowners engaged, we can only get to a tiny fraction of them.
We also work through a “just in time” model whereby we will not pick a single orange until we have a confirmed home for it. We currently have no refrigeration or storage facility so it is a direct pass through – which means our staff is coordinating with literally hundreds of agencies that take the product, and distribute it to their clients.
Though this model will likely change with the opening of a produce depot in the DTLA area at the end of this year, we do not expect to be warehousing in the normal sense of food banks, and still expect to retain our place a bridge or connector organization which hands off the food as soon as we get it.
The other big challenge is the near constant fundraising that we do to accommodate the growing programs and impact we make – We now recover approx 20 million pounds a year – it’s great to have this abundance of opportunity but it cost money to employ the passionate and talented staff that directs traffic, maintains our network and a do thousand other things across LA and Ventura County.
Food Forward – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Food Forward has become known as unique in our space due to our blend of high impact (20 million pounds of produce recovered and donated directly and indirectly to 1800+ agencies serving the food insecure across SOCAL, and beyond) plus high civic engagement (employing thousands of volunteers annually to take part in meaningful and highly professionalized food recovery events.)
Pairing these two elements, along with an extremely reliable, transparent and somewhat goofy culture, has given us a strong presence in SoCal and nationally on the food recovery/anti-hunger landscape. It’s both humbling and validating to be recognized by peers as well agencies such as the EPA, which recently singled us out as the only non-profit in the country, by awarding a Food Recovery Challenge award, for outstanding metrics and programs, for the third year in a row.
We see others in our field as part of the same effort and collaborate, rather than compete, whenever possible. I feel our staff, Board and fruity community see our entire world through a lens of abundance and try to approach what we do – gifting free food to folks in need – with a sense of duty but also one of joy.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success is sleeping well at night after a hard day’s work or play, or both. It is the feeling that you and those you hang with did your best and made a difference. Success is being part of the beginning of a movement and building partnerships that have staying power and the potential to shift people’s perspectives and improve the lives of those around you and the community as a whole.
Where much of our work is metrics driven – i.e. pounds collected, individuals fed, etc – the greatest marker is the personal stories of engagement and transformation that I am lucky enough to hear about from all levels of our organization.
From our staff going on an inspiring site visit to an agency we’ve helped feed people, to a volunteer that joined our crew after coming out of a background of personally dealing with hunger, to a funder that had a lightbulb go on after understanding that our work is transformational at a hunger, environmental and health level – hearing how Food Forward’s work connects folks in countless ways personally inspires me every day.
Contact Info:
- Address: 7412 Fulton Ave. #3 North Hollywood, CA 91605
- Website: foodforward.org
- Phone: 818-764-1022
- Email: [email protected]
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