12 JANUARY 2021
WHEN MATT JOZWIAK, formerly a cook at pedigreed restau-
rants including Eleven Madison Park and Noma, staged in
France, he was amazed by how fine-dining kitchens effort-
lessly exhausted their ingredients: Fennel branches were used
to smoke salmon; salmon bones were carefully scraped for
tartare —nothing was wasted. Back home in the United States,
by contrast, food waste was commonplace—70 billion tons
of food went to landfills each year. Certain there must be a
better way, Jozwiak launched Rethink in 2017, collecting
excess food from restaurants, grocery stores, and corporate
kitchens to create meals for those in need.
While 2020 proved a thin year for silver linings in the hos-
pitality industry, Jozwiak saw a chance for his nonprofit to
give restaurant employees the work and dependable revenue
they desperately needed, while tackling rising food insecurity
and cutting down on wasted food. Jozwiak’s former employer
and 2005 F&W Best New Chef Daniel Humm proposed head-
ing up a new project called Rethink Certified to establish
partnerships with restaurants, asking them to develop and
cook meals for New Yorkers experiencing food insecurity in
exchange for a guaranteed fee paid out by Rethink, therefore
allowing operators to both retain staff and make rent.
Once certified, restaurants benefit from Rethink’s opera-
tions support, which includes access to a platform that allows
operators to track meal demand in specific neighborhoods.
“We see ourselves as a conduit. The chefs [contribute meals],
and then we matchmake in the community,” says Jozwiak.
Pre-COVID, Rethink was distributing 8,000 meals per week,
and they’ve served over 2.5 million meals in total, prepared
by restaurants like Adda, Gramercy Tavern, and FieldTrip
and distributed at more than 75 different local organizations,
including Brooklyn’s Prayer Mission, soup kitchens like
Neighbors Together, and community centers, such as the
Bronx House and APNA Adult Day Care in Coney Island.
This year, Rethink aims to operate food trucks and cafés
in cities like Chicago, Nashville, and San Francisco that will
operate on a pay-what-you-can model; their first café, which
opened in Brooklyn in May 2020, offers an ever-changing
restaurant-supplied menu that might, on any given day, in-
clude barbecue chicken or salad, as well as pantry staples,
for a requested $5 donation. Humm and Jozwiak are looking
to hit 400 Rethink Certified restaurant partners in the next
year. “We have to take our time and develop relationships
with local chefs and really figure out [what each community
needs] before we go in there,” says Jozwiak. “A lot of what
has been successful comes from being thoughtful and trying
to understand the climate.” —OSET BABÜR
FROM THE COMMUNAL TABLE PODCAST WITH KAT KINSMAN
“We work hard in spite of all that’s challenging us, and the reward is knowing we’ve sur-
vived another day, that we did the best possible job we could. When we fall short, it informs
our tomorrows and allows us to work harder.” —ERICK WILLIAMS, VIRTUE, CHICAGO
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WASTE NOT
Ready to get
your restaurant
Rethink Certified?
Learn more at
rethinkfood.org.
Not a restaura-
teur? You can still
make a donation
to fund fresh,
nutritious meals
for those in need
at give.rethink
food.org.
Leftovers
Get a Leg Up
KEEP UP WITH
Find Williams’ recipe for sugar-glazed salmon on p. 42.
PHO
TOGR
APHY
: RETHINK
FOOD
