Joseph Gitler, CEO of Leket Israel, spoke to Arutz Sheva-Israel National News, about Leket Israel, the leading food rescue organization in Israel, that serves the poor in Israel and food banks worldwide, with the sole focus on rescuing healthy, surplus food and delivering it to those in need through partner nonprofit organizations.
"Leket Israel started in 2003.It was a reaction, I would say, to the Second Intifada and the pain it caused on so many levels, including economic pain.
So, in the beginning, it was very much myself and, very quickly, extra volunteers who helped me pick up primarily from event halls at night. Today, we work throughout the country, picking up and delivering from any type of food partner that you can think of to over 350 nonprofits around the country.
There's still weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs and corporate cafeterias and the army, and everyone has food. And thank God, we live in the land of milk and honey, and the food is bountiful, and we waste it with the best of them.
And so what Leket does is we try to put those two things together. We take the pain that unfortunately exists, people struggling to make ends meet, and then all the food that's going to waste. Instead of letting it end up in landfills, we make sure it gets to those people who need it.
Surprisingly to a lot of people, the army is actually our biggest source of food. That's because we've been so busy the last few years with so many soldiers in active duty. And so we've expanded our base, and we're at nearly 100 army bases that we pick up from around the country."
Since October 7th, you're also out there helping the farmers.
"So I'd say that's probably the biggest change at Leket after October 7th. We continue to do all the work we need to do, but one added layer is this concern for the farming community.
We've always had it. We never really acted on it. But after October 7th, we saw that farmers needed help. Whether it was purchasing their crops, which we don't normally do, whether it was sending volunteers - tens of thousands of volunteers on over 10,000 buses that Leket has sponsored since October 7th - to just help them survive.
We've had loan funds for farmers. We've helped them buy equipment, everything for farmer health. And we've seen the results.
We didn't do it to create goodwill, but I can tell you, in the last month, we broke records in the amount of donations from farmers to Leket: nearly 5,000 tons in one month, which is over 5 million kilos. And for those of us overseas, over 10 million pounds in one month coming our way."
Now, one other aspect is, of course, actual meals that you're offering and giving to those in need.
"So that's how we got started many years ago, in my car, picking up those excess meals. It's grown today to over 20 refrigerated vans traversing the country, working with the hotels and the army bases and corporate cafeterias and event halls.
And the beauty of that project is a lot of those meals end up in the hands of at-risk youth and the elderly, who I'd say, of all the communities we work with, are the most important. One is our future and one is our past."
And as our holidays approach, Rosh Hashanah especially, of course, you're working even harder.
"We certainly are. We take great pride in the fact that we distribute meals throughout the year, day in, day out. But as the holidays approach, we find that there's an even greater need.
So what we're trying to do for this chag is increase the amount of meals to over 700,000 meals just for the current holiday period.
Leket is so fortunate to have so many volunteers around the world, and this is all happening thanks to our donors in Israel and throughout the world who help us.
I want to call upon all of you seeing this video to please help us.
We're trying to increase our meal rescue for the holidays to over 700,000 meals throughout the state of Israel, helping so many in need from all walks of life."