Latest news with #FoodBankofCentralNewYork
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Federal funding cuts have local impact on Food Bank of CNY
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — The Food Bank of Central New York is bracing for a potential rise in food prices and possibly more cuts to federal food aid. The food demand remains high in Central New York. 'What we're seeing is a sustained need at levels well above pre-pandemic,' said Brian McManus, Chief Operations Officer at the Food Bank of Central New York. Those levels could likely rise in the coming months, with food prices expected to increase. This comes, after President Trump slapped a 25% tax onto aluminum and steel, which houses canned goods, which is a large percentage of what the Food Bank of Central New York distributes. 'Unless things change where things become more affordable and people have more resources, they're going to continue to rely on that emergency food network,' said McManus. But concerns are now growing after President Trump slashed $1 billion in federal food aid. 'There have been two federal programs run through the USDA that have impacted us directly. The first was the discontinuation of a program called LFPA. That's Local Food Purchasing Agreements and what that was, was funding to food banks to buy food from within their region. For us, within New York State. It was funding we have to purchase directly from New York farmers, from New York growers,' said McManus. However, the LFPA program will no longer continue. 'It will end at the end of the summer, and there will not be a round two. Initially, it was announced that there would be a second round of this funding available, but then the decision was made that that wouldn't be the case,' said McManus. Cuts made to the Emergency Food Assistance Program have also impacted the food bank directly. 'Scheduled deliveries of food between April and July that we had on our calendar were announced that they would not be coming,' said McManus. So far, only a portion of the USDA food shipments the food bank receives have been cut. It's still unknown if further shipments will be canceled moving forward. 'The impact of those truckloads that won't be here through that program is not small. It's 15 truckloads of food; that's pretty significant. That would have been about a quarter million pounds of food that we were expecting to receive that we're not,' said McManus. For now, the organization is hoping things will improve. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
The MOST opens new Onondaga Grown exhibit in partnership with the Food Bank of CNY
(WSYR-TV) — There's always fun to be had at the Museum of Science and Technology in downtown Syracuse. Starting this weekend, visitors will have the chance to learn about food grown right here in Onondaga County while they explore the museum. It's part of a new partnership with the Food Bank of Central New York focused on agriculture. Our Tim Fox took us to the MOST for a live look ahead of the new exhibit's unveiling. Tim spoke with Lauren Kochian, MOST president/CEO, Dr. Emily Stewart, MOST senior director of Education & Curation and Karen Belcher, executive director of the Food Bank of Central New York. The GROW exhibit will feature brand new 2,500 square foot installation on the museum's mezzanine focused on agriculture and food systems in Central New York. It will also feature a six-stall farmer's market where visitors can 'buy' apples, corn, eggs, maple and dairy products along with seasonal items. Instead of a currency check out, the scanned items will provide food and nutrition information. In addition, there will be a tractor and trailer photo opportunity where visitors learn about food distribution. The tactile crop field will showcase the 'three sisters', which originated within our local Indigenous communities. This summer, the GROW food distribution center will open, teaching visitors how items go from farms to mass-produced food. The GROW exhibit grand opening is this Saturday, March 29, at the MOST. There will also be a food drive to benefit the Food Bank of CNY this Saturday and Sunday. Learn more at Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Independent
30-01-2025
- General
- The Independent
A food bank netted a huge haul of 13,000 fresh salmon. The catch? The fish were still alive
A New York food bank was offered a huge donation of fresh fish this month — but it came with a catch. LocalCoho, a soon-to-close salmon farm in the small upstate city of Auburn, wanted to give 40,000 pounds (18,100 kilograms) of coho salmon to the Food Bank of Central New York, a mother lode of high-quality protein that could feed thousands of families. But the fish were still alive and swimming in the farm's giant indoor tanks. The organizations would need to figure out how to get some 13,000 salmon from the water and then have them processed into frozen fillets for distribution to regional food pantries. And they'd need to do it fast, before the business closed for good. LocalCoho is ceasing operations this Friday. Thanks to dozens of food pantry volunteers willing to help staffers scoop up the salmon, the team was able to empty the tanks in a matter of weeks and cold pack tons of fish for shipment to a processor. 'The fact that we only had weeks to execute this really ratcheted up the intensity and the anxiety a little bit,' said Brian McManus, the food bank's chief operations officer. 'I knew that we had the will. I knew we had the expertise.' Tackling food waste has been a daunting challenge for years both in the U.S. and around the world. More than one-third of the food produced in the U.S. is never eaten and much of it ends up in landfills. On a recent day, workers waded through knee-deep water teeming with salmon to fill their nets. Christina Hudson Kohler was among the volunteers who donned waterproof overalls and gloves to grab the fish-laden nets and empty their contents into cold storage containers. 'It's a little bit different,' Kohler said during a break. 'In the past, my volunteer work with the food bank has been sorting carrots or peppers, or gleaning out in the field.' LocalCoho is a startup that had been piloting a sustainable salmon farming system employing recirculated water. Its facility west of Syracuse had been supplying coho salmon to wholesalers and retailers, including high-end Manhattan sushi restaurants, with the goal of building regional farms across the country. But company officials said they could not raise enough capital to expand and become profitable. Thus, they decided to wrap things up at the end of January. With a shutdown looming, farm manager Adam Kramarsyck said they didn't want the fish to go to waste or end up as biofuel. That's when they reached out to see if the fish could be donated as food. 'It's 'lemonade out of lemons,' I guess is the phrase,' Kramarsyck said. LocalCoho can process about 600 fish a week by hand. But there was less than a month to clear the tanks of many times that number of fish. Enter the food bank. McManus was excited by the offer to land so many fish — and nervous about the challenge. But while the Syracuse-based operation knew how to distribute canned or frozen seafood, they're not set up to handle fresh fish. How could they turn thousands of fish into frozen fillets in a tight time frame? Kramarsyck said it took 'tons and tons of logistics.' The food bank enlisted 42 volunteers to help out. A local business with refrigerated trucks, Brown Carbonic, offered to ship the fish for free to a processor an hour away in Rochester. And LocalCoho staff pitched in to get the job done in time. 'A lot of companies going out of business would just be like, 'Take what you can get, we'll do the best we can.' I mean, they're working extra hard,' said Andrew Katzer, the food bank's director of procurement. The salmon was being processed and quick-frozen. It will be distributed soon among 243 food pantries, as well as soup kitchens, shelters and other institutions in the food bank's network. All told, the catch is expected to yield more than 26,000 servings of hard-to-source protein for the hungry. ' Protein, animal protein is very, very desirable. We know that people need it for nourishment and it's difficult to get. And so this is going to make a very large impact," said McManus. 'I don't anticipate this being here very long,'' he added. "We've had salmon before, but not like this.'
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- General
- Yahoo
A food bank netted a huge haul of 13,000 fresh salmon. The catch? The fish were still alive
AUBURN, N.Y. (AP) — A New York food bank was offered a huge donation of fresh fish this month — but it came with a catch. LocalCoho, a soon-to-close salmon farm in the small upstate city of Auburn, wanted to give 40,000 pounds (18,100 kilograms) of coho salmon to the Food Bank of Central New York, a mother lode of high-quality protein that could feed thousands of families. But the fish were still alive and swimming in the farm's giant indoor tanks. The organizations would need to figure out how to get some 13,000 salmon from the water and then have them processed into frozen fillets for distribution to regional food pantries. And they'd need to do it fast, before the business closed for good. LocalCoho is ceasing operations this Friday. Thanks to dozens of food pantry volunteers willing to help staffers scoop up the salmon, the team was able to empty the tanks in a matter of weeks and cold pack tons of fish for shipment to a processor. 'The fact that we only had weeks to execute this really ratcheted up the intensity and the anxiety a little bit,' said Brian McManus, the food bank's chief operations officer. 'I knew that we had the will. I knew we had the expertise.' Tackling food waste has been a daunting challenge for years both in the U.S. and around the world. More than one-third of the food produced in the U.S. is never eaten and much of it ends up in landfills. On a recent day, workers waded through knee-deep water teeming with salmon to fill their nets. Christina Hudson Kohler was among the volunteers who donned waterproof overalls and gloves to grab the fish-laden nets and empty their contents into cold storage containers. 'It's a little bit different,' Kohler said during a break. 'In the past, my volunteer work with the food bank has been sorting carrots or peppers, or gleaning out in the field.' LocalCoho is a startup that had been piloting a sustainable salmon farming system employing recirculated water. Its facility west of Syracuse had been supplying coho salmon to wholesalers and retailers, including high-end Manhattan sushi restaurants, with the goal of building regional farms across the country. But company officials said they could not raise enough capital to expand and become profitable. Thus, they decided to wrap things up at the end of January. With a shutdown looming, farm manager Adam Kramarsyck said they didn't want the fish to go to waste or end up as biofuel. That's when they reached out to see if the fish could be donated as food. 'It's 'lemonade out of lemons,' I guess is the phrase,' Kramarsyck said. LocalCoho can process about 600 fish a week by hand. But there was less than a month to clear the tanks of many times that number of fish. Enter the food bank. McManus was excited by the offer to land so many fish — and nervous about the challenge. But while the Syracuse-based operation knew how to distribute canned or frozen seafood, they're not set up to handle fresh fish. How could they turn thousands of fish into frozen fillets in a tight time frame? Kramarsyck said it took 'tons and tons of logistics.' The food bank enlisted 42 volunteers to help out. A local business with refrigerated trucks, Brown Carbonic, offered to ship the fish for free to a processor an hour away in Rochester. And LocalCoho staff pitched in to get the job done in time. 'A lot of companies going out of business would just be like, 'Take what you can get, we'll do the best we can.' I mean, they're working extra hard,' said Andrew Katzer, the food bank's director of procurement. The salmon was being processed and quick-frozen. It will be distributed soon among 243 food pantries, as well as soup kitchens, shelters and other institutions in the food bank's network. All told, the catch is expected to yield more than 26,000 servings of hard-to-source protein for the hungry. 'Protein, animal protein is very, very desirable. We know that people need it for nourishment and it's difficult to get. And so this is going to make a very large impact," said McManus. 'I don't anticipate this being here very long,'' he added. "We've had salmon before, but not like this.' Michael Hill, The Associated Press Sign in to access your portfolio
New York Times
30-01-2025
- Business
- New York Times
A Fish Farm Offered 40,000 Pounds of Salmon for Free. There Was a Catch.
The offer was too good for the Food Bank of Central New York to pass up. A local fish farm was going out of business, and it wanted to donate more than 40,000 pounds of sushi-grade salmon. There was one big hitch: All that free salmon was in the form of 13,312 live fish. Like any good fish story, the saga of the salmon — from a high-end fish-farm start-up with clients like Nobu and FreshDirect to the plates of needy New Yorkers — soon swelled into an epic tale. It came to involve dozens of volunteer fish-catchers, members of the Onondaga Nation and a guy willing to donate 10,000 bags of ice. It began with bad news: LocalCoho, a salmon farming operation that was considered exemplary because of its sustainable practices when it opened in 2017, was shutting down on Jan. 31. The company, based in Auburn, N.Y., had drawn praise for aquaculture that raised salmon in tanks on land, sparing the environment from pollutants inherent in ocean-based fish farming. But despite being well-received and seeming to have regular investment, LocalCoho struggled to make a profit, according to an article in which first reported the full story of the fish donation. Early on Jan. 2, Meghan Durso, a manager at TDO, a Syracuse nonprofit, took a frantic phone call from LocalCoho's owner, Andre Bravo, about what to do with all his fancy fish. He was prepared to give the salmon away, but he didn't know where to start. 'He said, 'Hey, we are going to throw these in the dumpster,'' Ms. Durso recalled. 'And I said: 'Hey, wait.'' But the task facing her team was giant. They found takers for tons of live fish — including the Food Bank of Central New York and the Syracuse-Onondaga Food Systems Alliance — but that was just the beginning. They would also need people to scoop each of the thousands of salmon from their tanks in Auburn, people to ship them on ice to a processor and people to turn the fish into fillets. And they had only days to do it before LocalCoho closed for good. Calls and emails to Mr. Bravo were not returned. Reached by phone, Adam Kramarsyck, a manager for LocalCoho, said he was not permitted by the company to comment. Then the iceman came: Shawn Salle, the operations manager of Brown Carbonic, a Syracuse business that runs the Ice Company of Elmira, answered the call. His grandparents, who founded the company, long supported the food bank, Mr. Salle said, so his response was easy: Where should he send his freezer trucks? Ultimately Mr. Salle supplied five employees, two trucks and 10,000 pounds of ice to the project, at no charge. 'It really wasn't a question of if we will,' he said. 'It was, How can we help and what do you need?' Back at the Central New York Food Bank, Andrew Katzer, the director of procurement, was also busy working the phones. He was delighted to take the fish, but he would need to find a company that could clean, gut and debone more than 20 tons of salmon. There was also the matter of drumming up volunteers. Ultimately 42 helpers would spend the week in LocalCoho's tanks, wearing rubber waders and netting the fish, placing them in ice baths and loading the cold, slippery creatures into the refrigerated trucks. Mr. Katzer was right there with the volunteers in the tanks. 'The fish, they often don't want to be caught,' he said. 'You get very wet.' JD & Sons Seafood, a Rochester wholesaler, offered to fillet the fish at a steep discount, Mr. Katzer said. The last of the fish left for Rochester on Wednesday; the next step will be distributing the fillets to the food bank's partner organizations — more than 300 across 11 New York counties. The total operation has cost about $30,000, according to the bank. Until recently, Local Coho salmon went for $17.99 a pound on the Fresh Direct website, making the approximate market value of the donation more than $700,000. About 250 salmon were picked up by members of the Onondaga Nation, who filled two pickup trucks with coolers to take to their land, on a day so cold the fish stayed frozen solid, said Curtis Waterman, a member of the Beaver Clan who works as a hunter-gatherer fisherman for the Onondaga Nation Farm, about 20 miles south of Syracuse. There, before filleting the salmon, Mr. Waterman and his colleagues gave the animals a traditional thank you for their sacrifice in the Onondaga language, he said. Then the fish was flavored in a slightly less traditional manner, with teriyaki, brown sugar, salt and pepper, and then smoked, before the about 9,000 servings of salmon were packaged to be given away to the nation. 'I've had a lot of smoked salmon,' Mr. Waterman said. 'This was good.'
