21 August 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Shoppers at Towne West Square will notice a new tenant on the west side of the building near Dick’s Sporting Goods. ICT Food Rescue is opening The Upcycle Kitchen, but it is not a place where you can eat or spend any money.
ICT Food Rescue is a non-profit organization that started in 2016. The charity rescues good food before it’s thrown away and donates it to people in need. The Upcycle Kitchen will continue its mission.
“What we will be able to do here is to bring in food surplus from throughout the community, whether it’s meat, produce, shelf-stable items, anything like that,” Stephanie Merritt, ICT Food Rescue founder, said. “We have eggs that people donate, and we have chefs on staff that will be able to cook those into meals, and then we will donate those meals. Everything comes in our back door, goes out our back door, so we … don’t serve here at the mall.”
She said the donated food is still edible. It is just not sellable to consumers anymore.
“What goes out our back door goes actually to alcohol recovery homes, foster care homes, veterans’ homes, our homeless shelters, so they get good home-cooked meals,” Merritt said.
On Monday, ICT Food Rescue held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the kitchen. An open house continues until 7 p.m.
In addition to the kitchen, ICT Food Rescue has another space nearby in the mall, with offices and storage for its non-perishable food. Volunteers were in that space during the open house, putting together 500 survival packets.
The packets are for people who don’t know where their next meal is coming from. It includes enough calories to get the person through until the next day.
But ICT Food Rescue does not give the packets or the cooked meals to individuals. It donates the food to its partner organizations.
Merritt said she got the idea for the non-profit when she returned to college at the age of 46.
“In my research, when I went back to college, I found that food rescue was happening on the East Coast and the West Coast, and also, I worked in an environment where I had to throw food away,” she said. “It just didn’t make sense in my mind anymore, and I knew there was the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act out there that would allow that food to be donated.”
ICT Food Rescue is now in its seventh year.
“The goal for the kitchen is 350 additional meals to what we are currently serving, which is usually about 250 meals, 250,000 meals a year,” Merritt said. “Our funding comes through personal donations. It comes through grants. It comes through family foundations and whatnot.”
The food for the Upcycle Kitchen can come from restaurants, convenience stores, caterers, and grocery stores.
“Our volunteers go out, and they rescue that food and save it from going to our landfill, and we bring it here instead,” Merritt said.
She said they also have an anonymous donor for a lot of the non-perishable food.
“We do partner with the K-State Extension Office and the Plant-A-Row program, so we already have some produce back there that has come in today, and it’ll come in all day,” Merritt said. “It comes in on Monday, Wednesday, Fridays, and we chop it up and store it, and then we’ll make meals out of it.”
She said the biggest need is proteins, like meat and beans. She also said there have been hiccups in getting The Upcycle Kitchen ready, but she was determined the open house would happen.
“I said this is it. We’re ready. We’re not ready. We’re having it on this day, so very excited to finally get the ribbon cut,” Merritt said.
If you know someone who likes to walk laps at the mall, they could help ICT Food Rescue raise funds. There are signs at the mall that says, “Sign up with ICT Food Rescue to have $1 donated for every mile you walk.”
You can also help the non-profit by volunteering and even donating unused condiment packages and utensils.
Find all the information at ICTFoodRescue.org and on the organization’s Facebook page.