A truck carrying 43,000 pounds of potatoes from a farm in Idaho is now bound for the Bronx, New York, to help families in need, thanks to the quick-thinking efforts of a team of friends.
John Botti of Westchester, New York, told ABC News on Thursday that he'd been watching "World News Tonight" on April 14 when he heard that farmers across the U.S. were pouring milk down the drain and watching vegetables rot in the fields -- a side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic gripping the world.
"I said, 'This is wrong. We need to do something,'" said Botti, a money manager.
He decided to call a few friends the next day and eventually the idea of Farms to Food Banks was born: They would send semi-trailers to the nation's farms and bring back free food to people in need.
"I saw the stark juxtaposition of American farmers having their vegetable crops go to waste due to supply chain disruption and economic collapse, while other Americans are on the brink of starvation due to food banks being overwhelmed and undersupplied," he posted on LinkedIn on April 20. "Our home state of New York and the boroughs of New York City have disproportionately borne the economic, health, and social welfare brunt of COVID-19. Many New Yorkers are very sick, out of work, have depleted their savings, and are in dire need of feeding their families to survive. ... This is a problem that we can help solve together, right now. And I invite you to help."
"Within the next 48 hours, a group of my friends will have mobilized a bootstrapped effort to transport food from farmers to food banks in the NY area. This amazing group has been creative and resourceful and is making an immediate difference," he continued in the post.
Botti was linked to cabbage farmers, potato farmers and even a woman in Mississippi with rice. By Saturday, his group had grown by a dozen more friends. They agreed to not only take the food from the farms that were going to be trashed, but to also raise money to buy the food from farmers like Ryan Cranney in Idaho.
