SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WSBT) CBS, Ellen and the U.S. Army are just some of the people talking about Cultivate Culinary.
The phones are blowing up, and that's a good problem for Cultivate Culinary's food rescue program that packages unused food into take-home meals for students.
We told you about its effort to help feed kids at Elkhart Elementary earlier this week. Now, their story has gone viral and news organizations all over the country want to talk to Randy Z and Jim Conklin about their work.
Those aren't the only calls the Cultivate guys are getting. Leaders of communities all over the country want to know how Z and Conklin do it and how other other communities can start food rescue programs of their own.
Z and Conklin said every community has the resources.
Randy Z's cooking career started as a hobby.
"It’s what I did when I was home from work," said Z, co-founder of Cultivate.
Then after opening his own restaurant and starring in his own cooking show for five years, he wanted more.
"Decided I still wasn’t helping enough people and came along and decided to do food rescue,” said Z.
As you saw Tuesday, a lot of the food Z rescues ends up with kids who struggle with food insecurity.
"I was that kid at one time," said Z.
The food Z and his volunteers prepare isn't your run-of-the-mill canned food-drive fare. He's gotten donations of lobster, prime rib, and even this Atlantic salmon.
"When’s the last time they had a really nice piece of fish? Why do they have to eat tuna all the time?" said Z.
Using a little of this and a little of that, Z gives that food new life.
"If I’m going to hand this to someone and it might be their only meal of the day, I want it to be a great nutritional meal that they’re very happy to have." said Z.
That good, healthy food is really the main focus for Z and his partner Conklin.
They don't handle any of the distribution. They partner with groups like the Food Bank and Meals on Wheels to get the packages to the people who need them.
"We’re all trying to help the same person,” said Conklin. "I don’t think any one organization can do it by themselves. We’re just another member of that team trying to help hungry people in our community."
After our story about Z and Conklin's work aired Tuesday, Z started getting a lot of calls. People around the country wanted to know how to start a food rescue program in their town.
"I’m not getting much done in the kitchen the last couple days," said Z.
Conklin runs the Cultivate email account and said it has looked like a slot machine since Tuesday.
Z and Conklin are trying to create a model for people in other communities to use.
"What we’re doing is not rocket science. It just takes somebody to have the drive and the initiative as I do, to get it started and have the support with your volunteers and donors to believe in you and see that it’s real," said Z.
Z and Conklin are actually moving into a new building. It looks like they have a lot of space in there, space for 3,000 square feet of freezer and 1,500 square feet of refrigerator space, which means they'll be able to take in an entire semi truck full of food.
They've had to turn that away in the past. Now, they'll be able to make more meals for people in the community.
They'll go from packaging 5,000 meals a week to 5,000 meals a day.
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