Over the last 15 years, "The Rachael Ray Show" has featured a fair number of delicious dishes.
Despite having no formal culinary experience, Rachael Ray has taught her fans how to prepare a
variety of meals, often in 30 minutes or less. But after Ray has demonstrated how to replicate these
recipes in their own kitchens, there's a whole lot of perfectly good food that has gone uneaten.
So where do all of those yummy leftovers go after the show is over? Well, once filming ends,
members of the cast and crew finally get a chance to enjoy the tasty creations. But even so,
there are still sometimes more leftovers than even the employees can finish in one sitting.
According to The Daily Meal, insurance stipulations prohibit any of the studio audience
members from sampling any of the meals that have been prepared on set, but that doesn't mean that
all the extra food simply goes to waste. Instead, "The Rachael Ray Show" partners with City Harvest,
a New York City-based non-profit organization whose mission is, according to their website,
"to end hunger in communities throughout New York City [...] through food rescue and distribution,
education, and other practical, innovative solutions."
"We've rescued some 545 million pounds of
perfectly good food that would otherwise have gone to waste."
City Harvest was founded back in 1982, when the founding Executive Director asked the chef of
a nearby restaurant if he would contribute his unused cooked potatoes — which normally
got tossed in the trash — to the soup kitchen where she worked. The organization now serves
over 1.5 million food-insecure New Yorkers and saves over 153 million pounds of food annually.
"Without City Harvest,
we wouldn't get the fruits and vegetables that we need to supply the neighborhood."
While Ray certainly has a lot of food she can regularly donate to City Harvest,
just about any food business can donate their leftover food to the organization.
They accept all food donations that have been prepared by a regulated or licensed restaurant,
caterer, farm, or food business, as long as it has been maintained as a safe temperature,
chilled or frozen before being picked up, and has not been plated or served. The organization even
comes to the donor's building to pick up the food as-needed, and daily or weekly pick-ups
can also be scheduled for those who regularly have over 100 pounds of food to contribute.
And that's not all City Harvest does. They also run mobile markets to deliver free,
fresh produce to thousands of New Yorkers, as well as run nutrition education programs to ensure
that all city residents have the knowledge and skills they need to prepare healthy,
nutritious, and delicious meals for themselves and their families — completely free of charge.
"And they teach you about like if you go shopping, how to read the calories and the sodium."
The organization even has a disaster response arm, in which volunteers
mobilize to provide food assistance to those in need after a citywide crisis,
such as a natural disaster, financial crisis, or — most recently — the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The Rachael Ray Show" is far from the only show to donate their leftovers to a worthy cause.
Many other cooking and food competition shows also choose to contribute their food to food banks and
other local charities. For example, Guy Fieri's exciting cooking competition "Guy's Grocery Games"
ensures not a single bit of food that is used on the show goes to waste. According to Showbiz Cheat
Sheet, all leftover food is donated to local food banks, the unused produce is composted,
and anything else that remains is sent off to local farms where it is used as animal feed.
Popular cooking shows in the UK like "The Great British Bake-off" and
"MasterChef UK” also allow their crew members, staff, and hosts to enjoy the tasty goods,
while Food Network's "Cupcake Wars" saves all the nonperishable ingredients for the next season,
and donates the remaining cupcakes to charitable organizations, according to Spoon University.
So while there's no doubt that Rachael Ray and many other cooking show hosts
use a whole lot of food in production, they give back quite a bit as well. While
fans get to learn how to cook creative and tasty dishes, many nonprofit and charity
organizations also get to enjoy the results of the hosts' deliciously crafted meals.
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