Food For Thought
Rye Lager

A Food Bank For New York City, Threes Brewing, and Runner & Stone Partnership to craft a new beer and raise awareness against food waste

Purchase Beer

A Bakery and a Food Bank walk into a bar…

In New York City, over 30 percent of our trash is made up of food waste. At the same time, 1.6 million New Yorkers face food insecurity. Every day, food sits in landfills while our neighbors go hungry, a crisis heightened by the rising costs of food, rent, and gas all across our city.

To raise awareness about this important issue, Food Bank is proud to debut “Food For Thought,” a beer crafted in partnership with Threes Brewing in Brooklyn using locally sourced and rescued bread from Runner & Stone bakery.

Every purchase of “Food For Thought” supports five meals for NYC neighbors in need and advances Food Bank’s work to fight food waste across New York City, an issue that directly impacts the estimated 1.6 million New Yorkers currently facing food insecurity. You can also join us for a special tasting of the beer on September 13 at Threes. Learn more here.

Why Beer?

One of the most difficult food items to rescue is bread. Baked goods have a short shelf life, which means there’s a very small window in which they can be redistributed in their normal state. Even so, Food Bank distributes thousands of pounds of bread to our neighbors each year (with nearly 630,000 pounds distributed last year from our Warehouse in the Bronx)..

Although bread may expire quickly, the active ingredients in bread can be turned into so many other things… like beer! While we may not have a brewery of our own, we thought it would be fascinating to partner with local businesses, save bread from the landfill and transform it into a beer that would taste delicious, support Food Bank’s mission, and raise awareness about food waste in NYC. Watch the video below to learn more about the project!

Keeping it in the Community

At its heart, “Food For Thought” is about community members coming together to raise awareness about an issue that affects us all.

Food Bank is proud to provide food and other resources to an extensive Member Network of over 800 soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, public schools, health care clinics, and college partners across the five boroughs. Check out the map below to see the Food Bank member agencies located in Gowanus near Threes Brewing and Runner & Stone.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Food Bank works on several fronts to eliminate hunger in New York City. The scale of our efforts is only possible because of our caring supporters. Gifts of time, talent, and treasure help to advance our mission.