PCG Spring 2026 Blog: Food Waste and Feeding Those in Need.

As the coming spring teases us with brief bouts of lovely weather, our volunteers look forward to getting back to work in the garden at St John’s Episcopal Church and resuming the collection of unsold food donations from the generous vendors at the Pleasantville Farmers Market in May.

During the warm weather, PCG volunteers grow and share hundreds of pounds of healthy fresh food from our garden and rescue thousands of pounds of beautiful produce and bread at the farmers market every week. All of this is shared with our donation partners who support those in need: Hillside Food Outreach, The Pantry in Mount Kisco, and Second Chance Foods. These generous donations from the farmers are not only appreciated but also keep good food from going to waste.

Typically, we give our hard-working volunteers a break from Thanksgiving until Memorial Day but because the farmers market is now outside year-round, we saw there was an opportunity to continue to collect produce donations through the winter.  We are thrilled to say our partners at Second Chance Foods stepped forward to continue the collections through this bitter, snowy winter. We are so very grateful to them for this effort!

Second Chance Foods, located in Brewster New York, joined our team of donation partners just last summer but quickly became an integral part of the work that we collectively do to feed those in need. In addition to the Pleasantville pick-up, they have also been collecting unused items from our friends at The Pantry and Hillside. Then what? They make amazing meals, which are frozen and then distributed to those in need including to our friends at Neighbors Link in Mt Kisco.

With so many struggling with food insecurity in our community it is shocking to learn how much edible food is wasted in the USA and globally every year. Just last year, PCG grew and rescued nearly 15,000 pounds of food that went to our donation partners who each feed hundreds of people every week. Access to food is a basic human right and we’re honored to be able to play a small role in not only rescuing food but getting nutritious food to those in need in Westchester.

If you want to volunteer or just learn more about the great work happening at Second Chance Foods, here is their web site.

We’re talking about food waste at the Chappaqua Library on May 3^rd at 3pm. Come see the film “WASTED: the Story of Food Waste” and stay for the panel discussion with our partners and a book signing by Kathryn Lacombe who is the Culinary Director at Second Chance Foods and author of the children’s book, “A Rescue Feast.”

Many thanks to Pleasantville’s Films on Purpose for co-sponsoring this spring film event and for the Chappaqua Library for hosting. You can register here for the new date for the WASTED event.