Ithaca, NY – Friendship Donations Network of Ithaca has been named the Non-Profit of the Year organization by the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber will recognize Friendship Donations Network at its annual banquet on January 25. The chamber’s award honors FDN for its commitment to reducing food waste and supporting hunger relief programs in the Ithaca area since 1988.

This year marks FDN’s 30th anniversary from its founding by Sara Pines. She noticed that many people were going hungry in the Ithaca region while, at the same time, a lot of fresh, healthy food was being thrown away by area stores and farms. In 1988, she persuaded area supermarkets and food growers to donate the still-good but unsaleable food and then recruited volunteers to pick up the donations and take them to organizations helping needy households.

Each year FDN’s volunteers rescue about 500,000 pounds of nutritious food from going to landfills and deliver it to the area’s food pantries and feeding programs that help 2,000 people each week. Surplus prepared foods, breads, produce no longer saleable due to blemishes and dairy products nearing their best-buy date are donated to FDN by local food outlets, including stores, restaurants, farms and colleges.

Friendship Donations Network is located in the Just Be Cause Center, 1013 West Martin Luther King, Jr. / State Street, Ithaca.  For more information on FDN or becoming a volunteer, call (607) 216-9522 or visit friendshipdonations.org.