Operation Food serves NYC food insecure with its primary focus on the young undernourished and the elderly food insecure
Our Children
OperationFood is resolute to enhance the procurement processes required in the K-12 school foodservice environment. We will get the right product at the right time in the right amount to the child’s plate and encouraging the rules for procurements are conducted within the framework of fair, open, competitive, and transparent purchasing. We know K-12 school meals are a highly specialized segment in the foodservice industry. In striving to manage the procurement puzzle, we believe education is an essential step to improvement and we work to develop a culture of partnership in the procurement process.
Discussions about best procurement practices acknowledge that what is in the district’s best interest is awarding the contract to “the most responsive and responsible” bidder. Responsive means that the product or service offered meets your needs and specifications. But responsible means that the vendor can meet the terms of the contract. Establishing the standard for acceptable performance is an important step in the process. There should be no room for misunderstanding about the standards that have been established, and every decision should be documented. We take a methodical approach with several steps: planning, analyzing, implementing, and monitoring.
By virtue of our 80 years in food service, in both retail, wholesale and bulk fulfillment, we we possess a unique knowledge base that provides us with Increased Purchase Power and Volume, New Menu Items: Providing higher-quality meals and offering new and different menu items can contribute to customer satisfaction and increased participation, Labor Reduction: we manage our own fleet for Direct to Manufacturing Advantages: we provide an opportunity to purchase large volume items directly from the manufacturer. This is a cost-effective advantage, as it eliminates the incentives and cash awards the manufacturer typically provides to the distributor, Expert Leadership: an excellent means for our team to share innovative ideas, as well as solutions to common problems with school nutrition directors. Properly procured and negotiated, the contract is a binding agreement that clearly articulates expectations for performance. It must be fair and recognize the needs and interests of all parties; most important, the children; our future.
Senior Citizens - “our future is our past”
Operation Food is a food procurement and distribution company whose primary objective is to reach and assist seniors over 60 who are facing undernourishment and hunger daily.
Nearly one in every six seniors in America faces the threat of hunger and not being properly nourished. This applies to those who are not sure where their next meal is coming from and those who do not have access to the healthiest possible food options. The issue is severe enough that the AARP reports that seniors face a healthcare bill of more than $130 billion every year due to medical issues stemming from senior hunger.
To understand the concept of seniors being hungry, you must understand what it means to be “food insecure.” When you are food insecure, it means that there is “limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways,”
An even deeper issue with senior hunger, aside from how many seniors it affects, is how disproportionately the food insecurity is spread out amongst races. African-American seniors were far more likely to have some sort of level of food insecurity than white seniors (almost 50 percent compared to 16 percent) and that Hispanics were more likely to live at some level of food insecurity than non-Hispanics (40 percent compared to 17 percent).
More than 10 million older adults are at risk of hunger every day. Older adults who are food insecure are 50 percent more likely to have diabetes and 60 percent more likely to have congestive heart failure. Research shows that food insecurity costs older adults in the U.S. an estimated $130 billion annually in additional health care expenses.
Did you know that for every single dollar we invest in this organization, we can save up to $50 in Medicare and Medicaid expenses and spending. If we can commit to serving just 25 percent of the elderly and seniors who face this hunger, the difference would be tenfold. The $2.4 billion we invest in this organization can be offset nearly 50 times by the $121 billion we end up saving (health costs, hospitals, etc.).
So, senior hunger is not just an individual issue or a race issue— it is an issue that has implications for families, communities and our entire society and socio-economic ecosystem as we know it.
At Operation Food, we foresee the creation of tangible, replicable solutions in ending senior hunger to meet the needs of an aging population. Food Insecurity among the elderly is an endlessly growing epidemic in our country. Operation Food will remain rooted in a tireless effort to extinguish hunger, providing quality, nutritious and sanitary meals for those that eat conventional, vegetarian, gluten-free, diabetic, cancer meals, kosher, and halal.