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NEPTUNE – For Ocean Township resident Adam Lowy, the worst thing people throw away when they move isn’t antique furniture or expensive decor items, but the “sheer volume” of food left behind.
“People left behind a whole pantry full of food. You would have thought they were fleeing,” Lowy said. “This is not the norm, this doesn’t happen to everyone. Usually it’s just a few things.”
Lowy founded his nonprofit Move for Hunger in 2009 to combat food waste. He graduated from Arizona State University in 2008 with hopes of working at MTV, where he had interned. During the Depression, he worked for the family-owned company Lowy’s Moving Service in Wall, founded in 1924.
Then he got a marketing job at fashion weeks and PGA tournaments, but “at some point I felt like I was organizing golf tournaments for rich people, and that’s really not what I wanted to do with my life.”
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After talking to his family about the things people left behind there, he decided to start Move for Hunger as a side project.
“It got to the point where I was doing my other job and this one at the same time, and then in August of 2009, I basically had to make a decision. I could try to go through with this and quit my job, or I could just say, ‘Hey, that was fun,'” he said. “So I told my parents I was quitting my job and moving back in with them.”
Since moving back, Lowy has focused on growing his nonprofit. At first, he simply asked Lowy’s Moving Service customers if they wanted to donate their nonperishable food items.
Since then, it has grown into a network of moving companies in all 50 states and as far as Canada. Currently, 23 employees are responsible for coordinating logistics and events across the country.
“Transportation, the logistical linchpin if you will, is never the most exciting topic of conversation, but you know, if we’ve learned anything from COVID, it’s that transportation really does make the world go round,” he said.
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In addition to individuals seeking to relocate, Move for Hunger has also reached out to food companies, farms and meal kit providers to connect food producers with local food distribution sites.
In Monmouth and Ocean counties, Neptune-based Fulfill is the primary food bank, working with a network of smaller food pantries and soup kitchens.
“Last fall, we got a call from Del Monte Bananas. 25,000 bananas arrived at a port in Los Angeles, still green, but a day late,” he said. “The grocery store rejected them. And we were able to pick them all up and have them delivered to a food bank.”
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Lowy said his nonprofit’s network of moving companies has donated 40 million meals over the past 15 years, and the goal this year is to donate 13 million meals.
“The average American family wastes $2,700 worth of food annually,” he said. “Forget your tax credit. Just stop throwing food away. … We are a country, a nation of plenty. And at the same time, so many people are struggling.”
Keith, father of Adam Lowy, who served on the nonprofit’s board until about 2020, said: “It’s a very young, energetic group of people who like to get involved and love the cause, and it’s a lot of fun to be a part of it.”
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Although he wanted his son to go out and explore other opportunities immediately after graduation, he supported his vision of bridging abundance and need.
“He always had this open-minded and ambitious attitude and was always caring,” Keith said.
For Adam Lowy, the most important lesson he has learned over the past 15 years has been marketing. Food shortages are a constant problem, but donations often drop after the Christmas season.
“The need right now is higher than it has been since 2014,” he said. “We’ve seen hunger go down a little over the years, but during COVID it spiked. It went down a little and then continues to rise.”
He encourages people to learn about food waste and donate to his organization.
“It’s very rewarding. You just don’t want to watch the food go to waste when you know that so many people aren’t getting food and you can help them,” said Keith Lowy.
Olivia Liu is a reporter covering transportation, Red Bank and western Monmouth County. Reach her at [email protected].
