Manischewitz Donates $100,000-Worth Of Grape Juice To New York’s Neediest
Alexander Rapaport, owner of Masbia Soup Kitchen, is not a fan of “food rescue,” but when a tractor full of $100,000 worth of Welch’s-Manischewitz grape juice pulled up to Masbia’s Queens location, even Rapaport couldn’t deny that this Hanukkah gift was a worthy one. The grape has a sell-by date at the end of January — too soon to be stocked on store shelves — but is in perfect condition.
“Food rescue needs viable economics,” Rapaport said. If someone gives Rapaport a donation of unwanted challah by the end of the week, it’ll be devoured. Give it to him on Sunday and it’ll just sit there.
“The only good way to do food rescue is when a manufacturer has a surplus and he gives it out, pre-expiration date,” said Rapaport. “The idea is often ‘Let’s give the poor all the garbage to eat,’” he said, adding that this went against the biblical concept of giving the first cut, or fatty part, of an animal to the needy. “It’s not dignified to give out something expired.”
Often manufacturers will dump extra, unexpired product in landfills, or they will reserve expired, unsellable products for soup kitchen donations. “Poor people are not garbage cans,” he said.
Shira Feder is a writer. She’s at [email protected] and @shirafeder
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO