Satisfy Hunger Organization
Kingston, NY, April 8, 2020 – As the Coronavirus continues its scourge throughout the globe, local businesses are stepping up to alleviate some of the food insecurity facing the Hudson Valley. The team at Satisfy Hunger—a food security initiative of the Hudson Valley Current—has been providing healthy meals to Ulster County residents via the county’s Project Resilience effort. At last count, over 650 meals have been directly provided by Satisfy Hunger to social service agencies via the county’s extensive distribution network. The Ulster County Department of Environment is organizing the food security component of Project Resilience, and Satisfy Hunger expects to continue to work with them to provide many more meals in the coming weeks.
A GCSEN alumnus still mentored by GCSEN Founder Mike Caslin, Hewitt and his Satisfy Hunger TEAM use the commercial commissary kitchen at Community Action in Kingston to prepare meals for its private catering and events clients, donating 10% of all surplus revenue to five local nonprofits at the end of each year. The Satisfy Hunger team has now gone into overdrive to provide nutritious meals to those in need. Teaming with Red Barn Produce, Food Bank of the Hudson Valley, Adams Fairacre Farms, and other local suppliers, Satisfy Hunger gathered locally sourced food products such as grass-fed beef, chicken, kale, potatoes and other fresh foods to prepare hearty, nutritious meals.
Hudson Valley Current director Chris Hewitt said, “Satisfy Hunger’s food security initiative is an important part of regional resilience in the Hudson Valley. This means that we are developing networks of local growers, food manufacturers, and food preparers to collect and distribute meals and foodstuff here, internally, without relying on outside corporate ag operations and food factories. It’s a team effort, and we have great local partners helping out behind the scenes—ensuring everyone here has enough food to get us through this crisis.”
Project Resilience continues to make a difference. Earlier this week Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan announced that the effort has already delivered over 10,000 meals locally. Christine Atkinson, director of Satisfy Hunger said, “I’ve been involved with restaurant work throughout my career, but it feels so fulfilling to use my skills and give back to the community. I coordinate food preparation for Satisfy Hunger’s contribution to Project Resilience. I must say, the local farming community is amazing. They get it. We purchase produce from them and also get food donations. Some, like Damn Good Honey Farm, have even done fundraising for us! And we’re using the Satisfy Hunger Food Truck, usually used for private events, as a second production kitchen so that we can make safe drop-offs and deliveries using social distancing. Everyone has been super supportive.”
For more information, to donate food or volunteer with Satisfy Hunger, visit www.satisfyhunger.org. or 845-389-1017 or chris@hudsonvalleycurrent.org