Episode 10: Fail-Proof Plan to End World Hunger.

HOST (Jennifer): (00:02)
Hello, welcome to this podcast called Finding Inspiration. It's a 20-minute weekly podcast where we interview someone with an amazing story. After the show, I know you're going to feel energized, invigorated and inspired. I'm Jennifer Weissmann. Welcome to Finding Inspiration. Today we're going to speak about food rescue and providing 1 million with an M-- meals to people who are in desperate need of food. Where did this food come from? Well, it's a million meals that would have been thrown into the trash can or left to rot on the vine. Pesia’s Kitchen’s founder is with us today and I want to share some highlights of this incredible story.

Guest (Gideon): (00:55)
The war on hunger certainly can be won.  We want to prove a point that rescue food is not costly. The largest company, probably in the world, which is Google. And they're all agreed that they are going to stop throwing their food out.

HOST (Jennifer): (01:07)
I’m speaking with Gideon Ben Ami.  Gideon has an incredible history of being an entrepreneur. He's a man who's made millions and lost millions. Now he’s set his sights on ending hunger in Israel by rescuing unused food.   Pesia’s Kitchen feeds a million meals at the cost of .32 cents a meal. How is that possible?

Guest (Gideon): (01:26)
First of all, it's true. How do we calculate that? And how does that happen? Rescued food in its most expensive form: the moving and the transportation from A to B. In other words where there is surplus food available to save it from trash is to pick it up and drive it by trucks to the community that can use it. And that's where a lot of the expense comes in.  Pesia’s Kitchen is considered to be a food bank. So, people come to the bank, the bank doesn't come to your house.  That’s what makes it very streamlined. We are now partners with national food bank – Leket Israel.  The reason that we have a streamlined budget is because Leket Israel brings the products to South Tel Aviv to our logistics center. And from there, we have partnering organizations that come and pick up the food and bring it to their population. To their shelters and to their safe houses and wherever the people need it. 

Guest (Gideon): (02:21)
Our expense is really on the logistics of doing all that. We don't have a very large budget. We don't have hundreds of cars and drivers and picking up and delivery.  Pesia’s Kitchen is a small branch of a food bank. So if you need food, we would tell you that twice a week in this location, you can come and pick up produce fruits, vegetables, breads, dry foods for free. If you needed food, you would go there, even if it takes a little walk.  That’s why we have a streamlined budget. And what is a meal? A meal is made up of one pound of foods.  That could be 80% produce, or it could be some meats prepared foods that we pick up from corporate kitchens.  Any pound of food that is considered a meal. We don't serve meals. as we think about them like a TV dinner -- a main course and two sides.  It’s food that is considered a meal unit. So, when we do 500,000 kilos, it's a million meals.

HOST (Jennifer):  (03:19)
Pesia’s Kitchen’s sole purpose is to end chronic hunger by rescuing and redistributing food that otherwise would have been thrown in the garbage or left to rot in the fields. Is that right? You are feeding 1 million people in 2021 and successfully ending chronic hunger with an incredibly low budget of $300,000 dollars a year at a cost of 32 cents per meal.  This is flat-out incredible.

GUEST (Gideon): (03:43)
Me and my family have been in the food service industry for many, many years catering restaurants and the hotels.  We've seen the waste in the process of preparing food for say 500 people for a function and only 200 show up. All this excess food gets thrown out. In the beginning, when we first started, we'd go to restaurants and the catering halls and be there at night and when the event ended, and then we pick up the food.   We had to get a place for refridgeration and the very next morning we would distribute the meals.   That model was not scalable.  We've grown since. And how can we do it at reasonable costs is because we have only four salaries, but we have 70 volunteers.  These people drive for us, help us pack and distribute. And that's the way we do it. The volunteer hours would accumulate to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year if we had to pay for it. We partner with schools. We partner with organizations in the private sector and groups of people who do a day of volunteering. So, in a way helps us to advocate for food rescue. We really do believe that rescued food can provide food for everyone who that lacks nutrition security. One third of all, food grown in agriculture is not used. It gets thrown out.

HOST (Jennifer): (05:16)
We will speak more about the toxic effects of the greenhouse gases. Your business model is a green-friendly model.  Seriously, one third of all food gets thrown out?

GUEST (Gideon): (05:27)
And world in Western economies. And for many, many reasons. The food was not refrigerated enough. It was grown too long. It's too soft. It's too big. It's too ugly. A lot of food is not sold and not even picked to go to market. Part of what the food bank does is send hundreds and thousands of volunteers to go and pick fruits and vegetables. Many farmers donate this food and many supermarkets call up food banks and donate too. So instead of throwing it out, they send it to the food bank.  So, there's more awareness now in the field food rescue because it is the solution for chronic hunger.

HOST (Jennifer): (06:12)
I understand the plan for Pesia’s Kitchen is to create at least 20 hubs all over Israel to stop chronic hunger.

GUEST (Gideon): (06:17)
We hope to grow to three or four more locations in 2022, and therefore get to double our output to 2 million meals and also inspire other programs throughout the country. We want to prove a point about rescue food. It's not that costly if you adopt a model that works.   We will prove success with our model.  And now we're stepping up as a new startup with very strong backing and sponsorship in the private sector. And we believe that we'll be heading a movement that could make Israel the first country that has no problem with chronic hunger using the sources of rescue food.

HOST (Jennifer): (06:53)
You have for sure proven that point Gideon. 

GUEST (Gideon): (06:56)
Yes, we have proof of concept, but then you have to see how it works in the scale-up.   By stepping up to a startup – we can create 10, 20 locations proving that if there was 50, 60, 80 locations or 150 locations, we could end chronic hunger.  It has to be a volunteer-based community-based project. Otherwise, it get too expensive.  Then you start thinking, maybe we should just give the poor the money to buy what they want instead of spending the money on their logistics that is equal to what they can go to the supermarket.  But then we wouldn’t use excess food. And that brings us to the problem of greenhouse gases. When you try to get rid of millions of metric tons of food, you can only bury them in the ground. 
And they emit these toxic greenhouse gases, which is terrible. We do two things. We're trying to avoid climate change and make sure that as much as possible excess food goes to the people who need most. It's a win-win.  Ten years ago, instead of retiring--  I said, no, I got to do something about this, but it's not normal to throw out food one kilometer down the road when people are hungry.  I just need to move it from A to B. And how do we do that? We knew right away that without a bunch of volunteers we'll need a lot of money and we're not happy with having to raise a lot of money.  So it's been working out great, and we feel that 2022 is going to be a really successful year. Proving the proof of concept that you can step up to a start-up and inspire other programs. Everything goes wrong when you don’t have food to eat.  Try not to eat food for a while and see what happens to you. We know the families that come home and their refrigerator is empty unless they come to our site and pick up some food. And it's very, very sad.  Why continue this way because can solve this hunger problem.  Years ago, when I was a young boy, growing in America-- President Johnson declared “war on poverty.”  I don't think that could be won.  But the war on hunger certainly can be won. And that's what we're out to do. Pesia’s Kitchen is a business model that can reduce and probably eradicate hunger in Israel. 

 HOST (Jennifer): (09:23)
As you say, you have proof of concept. I want to go back for a minute and talk about your personal story, because it's a very interesting. You were raised in America.

GUEST (Gideon): (09:34)
I was born in Israel, but at a very young age, we relocated to America. I have six brothers and sisters. And 30 years later, I came back to Israel with my four children. All of them before age of bar mitzvah and they became Israeli citizen and did their army service. And two of them are involved in the Pesia’s Kitchen.  Pesia was my grandmother.  She was a legendary woman who fed everybody who was hungry in her little village in Poland. And we grew up with that idea that you must care for the poor. You must care for the hungry for the stranger. It was always a dream to go into that in a more full way. When I started considering retirement -- I decided to go into this field of food rescue.  I experimented in a variety of different models of operation.  And about four years ago, we really started to grow when we adopted the model that we operate with now in Pesia’s Kitchen.  And even at the last few years of my other business life, I was in a biotech company, developing networking systems.  What we do in Pesia's Kitchen is basically solve a networking challenge.  We help network between different groups of people. We ended up with a really simple business model.   Sometimes you work at you're trying to solve a problem for a long time. In the end, you come down to the very, very simple way to do it.  Then you say to yourself, why didn't I think about it early on.  Previously, we spent a year or two running around, picking up food from all over and we weren't growing. And now we can have unlimited growth with this model.

HOST (Jennifer): (11:01)
One sentence, your business model is?

GUEST (Gideon): (11:05)
Getting rescued food from A to B in the most efficient, and low cost fashion. And as much of it as possible.

HOST (Jennifer): (11:10)
It is through the use of volunteers.

GUEST (Gideon): (11:13)
Exactly.  We connect the volunteers with the corporate kitchen.   Let's say a Google or Waze, or the Electric Company has extra food that day. The volunteers are going to pick it up for their community directly from Google or Waze’s kitchen. The food travels from that Google/Waze kitchen to donated kitchen directly.  The food doesn't get sent to a logistics center.  It goes direct.  Remember food has health issues and safety regulations of how you pick it up. What temperature you move it to from A to B. And therefore, we also use volunteers, and our grant grantees. So, we have a wide range of options. When we want to pick up the corporate kitchen daily at Google or Waze after lunch, we create a crew that goes there every day to pick up the unused meals.  Google would generally yield 100 to 200 meals a day out of the 600 meals they prepare. But then we have about 8 to 10 other corporate kitchens. That's on the prepared food end. And then the dry foods come on big pallets and trucks. And there go to the warehouse. And sometimes we have chilled foods like yogurts and milks and dairy products. So, we have refrigeration and we distributed from our logistics center. And we have the largest company probably in the world, which is Google. And they're all agreed that they are going to stop throwing the food out to the wasted food. 

HOST (Jennifer):  (12:43)
Is that a difficult conversation to have with these companies. I would imagine that's a very yes for them.

GUEST (Gideon): (12:47)
Yes now it’s easier. There is a new law that says you cannot sue someone who's giving you food even if you have a bad results from eating that food.   Let's say it was contaminated or something. You cannot blame the person who gave it to you. It's called the Good Samaritan Law. It basically says you're trying to help somebody. You cannot turn around and sue them because they helped you in a way that hurts you inadvertently.  In 2020, the market is much is very open to food rescue. It does take corporate discussions whether to give the food out.  But it’s becoming a very easy thing because new leadership of is of the young generation.  These people are aware of climate change, of the poor, and the division between those will have and those don't have, and they're much more open to help. It's been a joy to go to these corporate kitchens on a daily basis and see this fantastic food that's served to high tech people and managers, and very high salaried people.  And then two hours later the poor are eating the same meals.  Otherwise, the homeless and poor would never have access to this kind of food.

HOST (Jennifer): (13:44)
This is absolutely inspirational. Is there any reason why this business model cannot be adopted in the US or other places in the world?

GUEST (Gideon): (13:53)
This is our dream. I do have friends in the United States who are colleagues who are doing much the same as what we do. At least one operation in Boston has been established and sponsor of Pesia’s Kitchen kitchen. He started the same thing and he said, you got me addicted. And he blames me for getting him addicted to this mitzvah. And he's out every day, coordinating a group of volunteers to pick up from location A and bring it location B and it's working great.   It could be easily duplicated grow all over the world.  Of course, the more we do it, the more we realize that if we can spread this throughout Israel, then Israel would be headlining CNN and New York Times No Hunger in this Israel.  Because the Israeli’s devised a simple way up to rescue food.  It takes participation of everybody.  Our 2nd location is Holon which we opened this year. You'll see hundreds of people coming to get food and dozens and dozens of local community volunteers who know them, serve them, package the food, receive the food.  Remember our big expense is logistics -- getting from location A to location B.  If the food can transfer itself robotically there will be no need for us.  Pesia’s Kitchen has no big salaries, and no frills. Our facility is made up with sea containers that were donated by a shipping company. And it's very inspiring.  When people come to visit us they are really touched with what we do. I invite everybody whose listening to this podcast to look up Pesia’s Kitchen.   You will love what you see.

HOST (Jennifer): (15:28)
And it is absolutely incredible. You said the people get under your skin and that you worry about them. You said must to make sure that Nina in Herzliya gets her food so she can eat that week. Can you share a story of someone that's really touched your heart?

GUEST (Gideon): (15:43)
I experienced food insecurity as a child. I know what it is to be hungry.   I see people who are Holocaust survivors, refugees or single moms or women who became addicted to drugs because of many, many reasons. When I see these people and I say why did they have to be in hunger?  Why do they have to worry about where their next meal comes from.  It really bothers me. And therefore, we're motivated to end this ridiculous situation where there's so much wasted food. I see a woman like Mina in Herzliya.  She is a Holocaust survivor, and it breaks my heart.  We know governments don't do all the way through what they should do for people in terms of the social aspects. And it takes the private sector and volunteers and other organizations.  We have many stories of how people got to the situation where they don't know where their next meal is coming from, or they don't even have roof over head.

HOST (Jennifer): (16:45)
Is there story you can share with me?

GUEST (Gideon): (16:47)
As the Coronavirus came in Israel, a lot of people their lost jobs or they couldn't go to work. And it was an unusual situation.   I remember one guy in the early days of the pandemic.  All of a sudden a modern new car pulls in to the driveway. And the guy comes up to me who is very well dressed like an executive. He says, can I get your help getting some food? And I ask him what he does. He says he was just laid off from the pandemic, and he had no cash at hand. And you'll start to realize that there's the new set of poverty because of the pandemic.  Several hundred thousand people were suddenly unemployed and instantly have no cash flow.  And I was looking at the guy and saying: Wow, how you go one day to be in this position of a good job. And the next day looking for a meal for your family because you cannot go into a supermarket to buy food.  And that struck me.  On top of that, to see somebody who is always in this situation, it struck me that there's so many people that could be satisfied with surplus food rather than be hungry. We just don't want to see hunger in any form. That's our mission. And I think we have a solution for it. And we're super excited. We see that there's more and more interest in helping us and backing us, joining us and volunteering with us. I'm extremely happy to share this with you, appreciate your interest. And I would appreciate anyone interested in advocating for food rescue learn more about Pesia’s Kitchen.

HOST (Jennifer): (18:09)
Grandmother Pesia is looking down on you.  She has a big broad smile on her face thinking her grandson did something very good. And I thank you for all your work in support of food rescue Gideon.