AUBURN, NY. This month, a massive donation of fresh fish was made to a food bank in New York, but there was a catch.
The Food Bank of Central New York is a mother lode of high-quality protein that could feed thousands of households. LocalCoho, a salmon farm in the small upstate community of Auburn that is about to close, wants to donate 40,000 pounds of coho salmon to the organization.
The fish, however, were still alive and swimming in the enormous indoor tanks at the farm. For distribution to local food pantries, the organizations would have to find out how to remove some 13,000 salmon from the water and then process them into frozen fillets.
They would also have to act quickly, before the company permanently closed. This Friday is LocalCoho’s last day of operation.
The team was able to cold pack tons of fish for shipment to a processor and empty the tanks in a matter of weeks because of the dozens of food pantry volunteers who volunteered to assist staffers in scooping up the salmon.
Chief operations officer Brian McManus of the food bank remarked, “The fact that we only had weeks to execute this really ratcheted up the intensity and the anxiety a little bit.” We have the will, I knew. I was confident in our knowledge.
For years, reducing food waste has been a difficult task in the US and other countries. A large portion of the food produced in the United States—more than one-third—ends up in landfills and is never consumed.
To load their nets, workers recently plunged through knee-deep water packed with salmon. Volunteers wearing gloves and waterproof overalls, including Christina Hudson Kohler, retrieved the nets full of fish and dumped their contents into cold storage bins.
At a break, Kohler remarked, “It’s a little bit different.” I had previously volunteered at the food bank by gleaning in the field or sorting peppers or carrots.
A new company called LocalCoho has been testing a sustainable salmon breeding method that uses reclaimed water. With the intention of establishing regional farms around the nation, the site west of Syracuse had been providing coho salmon to wholesalers and retailers, including upscale sushi restaurants in Manhattan.
However, firm executives claimed they were unable to gather enough money to grow and turn a profit. As a result, they agreed to conclude by the end of January.
Adam Kramarsyck, the farm manager, stated that they did not want the fish to be wasted or turned into biofuel because of the impending closure. At that point, they inquired about the possibility of using the fish as food.
I suppose the phrase is “it’s lemonade out of lemons,” Kramarsyck remarked.
Every week, LocalCoho may manually process roughly 600 fish. However, the tanks needed to be cleared of many times as many fish in less than a month.
Come on in to the food bank.
McManus was both anxious about the task and thrilled at the chance to land so many fish. However, the Syracuse-based organization is not equipped to handle fresh fish, even though they are skilled at distributing canned or frozen seafood. How could they quickly transform thousands of fish into frozen fillets?
According to Kramarsyck, it required a great deal of logistics.
Forty-two volunteers were recruited by the food bank to assist. The fish was offered free shipping to a processor in Rochester, an hour away, by Brown Carbonic, a local company with chilled trucks. Additionally, LocalCoho employees helped to finish the task on schedule.
Many businesses that are going out of business would simply say, “Take what you can get, and we’ll do our best.” According to Andrew Katzer, head of procurement for the food bank, “I mean, they’re working extra hard.”
They were quick-freezing and processing the salmon. Soon, 243 food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and other organizations in the food bank’s network will receive it.
More than 26,000 meals of difficult-to-get protein for the hungry are anticipated to be produced overall from the catch.
Animal protein, in particular, is highly sought after. We are aware that it is hard to obtain and that people require it for sustenance. According to McManus, this will have a significant effect.
“I don’t think this will be here for very long,” he continued. Before, we had salmon, but not in this form.