Donate

Donate Money

Supporting Adelante Desert Harvest is an easy way to support food pantries around the city!

We coordinate the distribution of over 1 million meals a year, helping 10-20 organizations and thousands of hungry people every month. Best of all, since Desert Harvest uses an existing food source, our costs are limited to things like food safe packaging and transportation. It costs just 4 cents for every meal – a bargain in the fight for hunger. Your donation goes a long way through Desert Harvest!

Donate

Donate Food

Desert Harvest continually seeks additional food service establishments, including local restaurants, hotels, and grocers to donate their over-run or surplus food. Our staff can work with you in determining the best schedule to pick up your surplus food.

Desert Harvest is not a food pantry and we don’t store any of the food you donate. We pick up the food you want to donate, and deliver it directly to a local nonprofit that can use it to feed people in need. Desert Harvest provides the food-safe packaging you’ll need to pack up your items, like bags for breads and containers for soups and stews, to make sure that saving food doesn’t end up costing you money. In addition, we’ll either arrange regular pickups for you on set days, or we can agree to handle your donation as quickly as possible if yours is a one-off, or rare, donation. For example, if you have a cancelled or under-booked event. 

When you have surplus food, simply package and refrigerate or freeze the food you’d like to donate. Desert Harvest provides the food containers, if necessary, at no expense to you. Our volunteers will pick up the food at your convenience and deliver it directly to a recipient agency for distribution to the hungry.

To donate food through this award-winning food recovery program, contact us below!

 

 

Types of food accepted

We accept all kinds of food, both prepared and unprepared. In general, prepared food, often from restaurants, will go to local soup kitchens and meal programs. Unprepared food, often from grocery stores, will go to local food pantries. We are especially interested in nutritious foods that we like to call brain foods. Produce, dairy, and protein help children’s brains develop properly and adults’ brains to focus at work.

Legal Protection

You’re Protected! State and Federal laws protect Desert Harvest donors.

  • The Emerson Act (HR 2428) was enacted in 1990 to encourage donations of surplus or leftover food to food rescue programs. It gives food donors protection under Federal law. It states that food donors acting in good faith shall not be subjected to civil or criminal liability arising from the “nature, age, packaging or condition of apparently wholesome food.”
  • New Mexico Statute 41-10-3 (1978) is the State law protecting food donors from all forms of liability. The wording is essentially the same as the Federal law offering protection for donors.
  • The Desert Harvest Recipient Agency Agreement is a document signed by all agencies participating in and receiving food through Adelante’s Desert Harvest Food Rescue. The document makes the recipient agencies wholly responsible for the safety and condition of all food in their facility.
  • Desert Harvest picks up food from donors and delivers it to the recipient agency as soon as possible. At that point the food becomes entirely the receiving agency’s responsibility.

Contact Us To Donate Food


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