H eadlines
Food Redistribution
Guides Abbe Stern
L OCA L
ANDY GOTLIEB | JE STAFF
Prevention Point Philadelphia
and SEAMAAC, in partnership
with the City of Philadelphia and
several nonprofits to provide free
lunches to the needy. More than
50,000 lunches were provided
through April.

As project manager for
Step Up to the Plate, Stern
faced numerous pandemic-re-
lated challenges, noting that
“waste occurs when something
unexpected happens.”
At first, Stern had to scurry
to find places for the food that
pandemic-closed restaurants
were giving away before it
spoiled. And then there were
different challenges, such as
shelters no longer being able to
serve food indoors. That created
the need to find ways to coordi-
nate meals at other sites.

Earlier this year, Stern joined
Too Good to Go, the European-
based organization that debuted
in Philadelphia in February.

TGTG’s app links consumers
with food businesses, allowing
retailers to sell surplus food,
while consumers get value, too.

While various efforts are
making a difference in getting
food to where it needs to be,
there’s still a long way to go, said
Stern, a Wynnewood native who
celebrated her bat mitzvah at
Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El.

“The access to food is
atrocious,” she said, adding that
anyone looking to donate food
should make sure their chosen
organization can accept it,
needs it and wants it. “Hunger
is something we should be easily
able to solve.”
A benefit of working in food
redistribution comes from the
thanks received. Stern recounted
delivering food to an ill — but
grateful — woman through the
Mitzvah Food Program.

“I felt so privileged to do that
work for her,” she said. l
PEOPLE FIND THEIR paths
in life at different times and,
for Abbe Stern, that moment
came at Johnson & Wales
University while her professor
was lecturing.

“The professor said, ‘There’s
enough food on the planet to
feed everyone. The problem is
distribution,’” Stern said.

A couple years later, while
working in the food service
industry, Stern saw firsthand the
inefficiencies and waste in food
distribution and took action.

“My trigger point was when
I saw a trash can full of bread,”
she said. “I just lost it. Why did
we throw this away?”
At first, Stern, 31, collected
leftover bread from the
Rittenhouse Hotel where she
was working and brought it to
the Sunday Breakfast Rescue
Mission. Soon, she was collecting
and redistributing bread from
multiple sources to several local
food rescue organizations.

Stern’s work has made others
take notice, as she’s one of five
finalists for the National Museum
of American Jewish History’s
Hometown Hero inductee into
its Ed Snider Only in America
Gallery/Hall of Fame.

The museum solicited nomina-
tions for Hometown Heroes
— “everyday citizens who strive
to make their communities a
better place and made particularly
impactful commitments during
the pandemic” — in May, and
voting continues until June 21.

NMAJH cited Stern for volun-
teering with Jewish Federation of
Greater Philadelphia’s Mitzvah
Food Program, founding Fooding
Forward to connect food business
with nonprofits to share excess
food, and for working with Step Up
to the Plate during the pandemic.

The latter is a 2020 collabora- agotlieb@jewishexponent.com;
tion of the Broad Street Ministry, 215-832-0797
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM JEWISH EXPONENT
JUNE 17, 2021
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