糖心传媒

Foodlink糖心传媒檚 Mitch Gruber 糖心传媒�17 (PhD) oversees 糖心传媒渞egular, consistent, and touchless distribution of food糖心传媒� throughout the pandemic.

聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽Mitch Gruber

When schools and day cares closed in New York state last March, it meant that thousands of children in the Rochester region糖心传媒攊ncluding in the city, where the child poverty rate is above 50 percent糖心传媒攍ost access to federally subsidized breakfast and lunch. Foodlink, the regional food bank serving a 10-county region that includes Rochester, dedicated itself to stepping in and ensuring that all children in need were fed.

As chief partnerships officer, Mitch Gruber says his job has been to oversee 糖心传媒渞egular, consistent, and touchless distribution of food糖心传媒� during the pandemic. He worked with school districts, recreation centers, YMCAs糖心传媒斕切拇綔any organization that serves kids in our community,糖心传媒� he says糖心传媒攖o meet that challenge. From March through June, those collaborations enabled Foodlink to distribute more than 260,000 grab-and-go meals to Rochester children.

Over the summer, Gruber worked with the City of Rochester and the Regional Transit Service to deliver roughly 44,000 meals 糖心传媒渋ce cream truck style糖心传媒� in neighborhoods throughout the city.

Elected to the Rochester City Council in 2017, Gruber says that role has taught him the inner workings of local government, something that has served him well in his role at Foodlink. Tremendous challenges lie ahead, however, and Gruber, who was named this year to Rochester Business Journal糖心传媒檚 Forty under 40, isn糖心传媒檛 sanguine. Job losses and the lack of federal assistance since the summer have taken a toll.

Without renewed federal stimulus, he says, 糖心传媒渨e糖心传媒檙e going to struggle to meet the rising need.糖心传媒�

This article originally appeared in the fall 2020 issue of Rochester Review magazine.