One in five New York City children don’t always know where their next meal will come from–a disparity that organizations like City Harvest are trying to end through competitions like “Skip Lunch Fight Hunger,” which will run from May 13 to May 17. The competition will split chefs like Michael Chernow (of the Meatball Shop and Seamore’s), Ed McFarland, Dan Churchill, Christophe Bellanca, Ivy Stark, and more into two groups for three rounds of skipping rope on May 14. City Harvest is the city’s largest food rescue organization and helps feed more than 1.2 million New Yorkers.
In round one of the competition, chefs on Team A will jump rope backwards while chefs on Team B will jump rope using only one foot. Whichever team lasts the longest wins. In round two, each member of each team will spell “City Harvest” out loud while skipping rope, and tag their next teammate once the word is complete. The first team to have all members jump and spell wins. In round three, all chefs will jump rope and whoever lasts longest wins for their team. As they jump, chefs will be asked questions about City Harvest–whoever answers incorrectly will be eliminated until there is one chef remaining. The chef who wins “Skip Lunch Fight Hunger” will receive a “Skip Rope” trophy–and bragging rights!
The fierce competition will take place at Seamore’s Brookefield Place at 9:00 am. The “Skip Lunch Fight Hunger” campaign was founded in 2002 by former Food & Wine editor Dana Cowin. The campaign encourages people to take the amount of money they would normally spend on lunch and donate it to help City Harvest provide nutritious food to kids in NYC who depend on free school breakfasts and lunches each day–and who struggle to eat healthily once school is out for the summer. Chef Marc Murphy, of Chopped, is this year’s campaign co-chair.
Visit www.cityharvest.org/skiplunch to join or lead a team and make donations to the campaign. These donations will support City Harvest’s quest to rescue 61 million pounds of food that would otherwise go to waste around the city and deliver it to soup kitchens and food pantries across the five boroughs.
