April 30, 2013 -- County Executive Robert P. Astorino was joined by non-profits and more than 40 local school officials at a food rescue forum held Tuesday at The Food Bank for Westchester in Elmsford.

Announced during his recent State of the County address, Astorino said the food rescue initiative is designed to reduce food waste and hunger by recovering leftover food from local schools, colleges, hospitals, hotels and restaurants, and then redistributing the untouched, fresh or packaged food to local houses of worship, food pantries and soup kitchens to feed the hungry.

"No one in this county should ever go hungry," said Astorino. "Our local food pantries, soup kitchens and houses of worship do a great job fighting hunger but they could always use more food supply. Recovering and redirecting fresh and untouched food that otherwise would have been thrown in the garbage is a smart way to bolster that food supply."

Also speaking at the forum was Syd Mandelbaum, CEO and founder of the Long Island based non-profit, Rock and Wrap it Up! Mandelbaum's organization has saved over one billion meals from being tossed away as garbage. Any school officials interested in having Rock and Wrap it Up! work with them to facilitate the recovery of leftover food should visit www.rockandwrapitup.org or call (877) 691-FOOD.

The second part of the initiative seeks to compost touched or spoiled food. In late May, a food waste composter will be installed at the Household Material Recovery Facility (H-MRF) in Valhalla. Composted food waste from the H-MRF will then be used to fertilize five local gardens run by The Food Bank for Westchester. The composter will be loaned by OWARECO LLC as part of a three month pilot program.

Dr. Robert Woodbine, Senior Vice President at OWARECO LLC, gave a presentation on how schools can compost food that cannot be recovered into a reusable soil amendment.