This petition is to advocate for the schools in New York to opt into the law passed in 2017, encouraging schools to donate their food excess to the nonprofits who will donate this food to the less fortunate.

New York City has the most food insecurity of any city in the nation. 1 in 4 people in NYC experience hunger on a regular basis. According to the Coalition for the Homeless, in NYC families make up 70% of the homeless in shelters, 40% of those are children. In NYC, 10% of the children in schools are homeless.

 This Homeless and Hunger crisis is everywhere in America and throughout the world. 56% of the overall Homeless population in America are in rural areas. We are thrilled that in the spring of 2024 we will be expanding into every town, city, and state in America. Businesses with food to donate and nonprofits, churches, homeless shelters, food pantries, soup kitchens, and street outreach, can register for free through our website www.thesolutiontohunger.org

While the United States is seeing the worst homelessness and hunger in the history of the nation, approximately 150 billion tons of food goes to waste every year. There is literally enough good food going to waste that no one in America should be going hungry. Our organization is quite literally THE SOLUTION TO HUNGER.

In September of 2017, a law was passed for all schools in New York from the Pre-K to the University-Level to donate their excess food to charitable organizations that can distribute their excess food to the homeless and poor. I am the Founder & President of a 501(c)3 Nonprofit, The Solution to Hunger, Inc. formally known as Catering for the Homeless, Inc., which is utilizing food excess from catering companies, schools, restaurants, and groceries stores for the millions of New Yorkers who need it. We have provided almost 3 million meals and over 250,000 toiletries, socks, and clothes so far.

Almost 250 schools have been contacted to get on-board with this new law, but until the Department of Education (DOE) opts into this law, most of the schools will not get on-board, and will continue to throw away perfectly good, quality, untouched food into the trash on a regular basis. If you believe that the schools in New York State and City should donate their food excess to the hungry in their communities to alleviate this hunger crisis, thank you for signing this petition.

Once the schools in New York are on-board, I plan to fight to make this a national program. Please visit www.thesolutiontohunger.org for more information or to make a monetary donation.