For years, food rescue in Israel has been spoken about in the language of charity. Volunteers. Donations. Good intentions. Gratitude. That framing is no longer just outdated - it is actively misleading.
Organizations like Leket Israel are often placed in the same mental category as welfare providers, as if they exist primarily to soften the edges of poverty. In reality, food rescue today sits at the intersection of economics, public health, environmental policy and national resilience. Treating it as philanthropy is like funding roads through bake sales.
The events of 2025 made this impossible to ignore. Israel, like much of the world, faced a convergence of crises: a rising cost of living, prolonged instability, supply-chain disruptions and deepening food insecurity. These pressures exposed a structural contradiction at the heart of our food system. Nearly 40% of all food produced is wasted, while hundreds of thousands of households struggle to access nutritious meals.
This is not a moral failure alone. It is a systemic one.
From Charity to Strategy
At Leket Israel, the country’s largest food rescue organization, the scale of that contradiction is visible every day. Perfectly edible, nutritionally sound food - from farms, packing houses, hotels and retailers is destroyed because the system rewards disposal more than redistribution.
In 2025, national conversations across government, industry and civil society began to shift. The conclusion was unavoidable: food rescue cannot remain dependent on goodwill. It must be embedded into national policy, supported by regulation, incentives and public investment, and treated as essential infrastructure.
This reframing matters because food rescue delivers measurable returns far beyond social assistance.
An Economic Case
Food waste costs Israel billions of shekels annually in lost produce, disposal costs, logistics and environmental damage. Redirecting even a portion of edible surplus reduces public spending on welfare, healthcare and waste management simultaneously.
Every shekel invested in food rescue generates multiple shekels in economic value. This is efficiency, not generosity.
A Public Health Imperative
Food insecurity is not only about hunger; it is about nutrition. Diets dominated by cheap, ultra-processed food drive higher rates of diabetes, heart disease and developmental issues all of which strain the healthcare system.
Leket Israel’s model increasingly emphasizes fresh produce, balanced meals and nutrition education. Rescuing food is not about filling stomachs; it is about supporting long-term health outcomes. That makes it preventive medicine at scale.
An Environmental Necessity
Food waste is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, water loss and land degradation. Rescuing food reduces methane emissions from landfills and preserves the resources embedded in every tomato, loaf of bread and carton of milk.
If Israel is serious about meeting its climate commitments, food rescue cannot remain an afterthought. It is low hanging fruit, literally.
Shared Responsibility, Not Philanthropic Luck
Looking toward 2026, Leket Israel identifies three pillars for the future of food rescue:
- Systemic integration across the entire supply chain, backed by legislation that incentivizes donation and discourages destruction.
- Sustainable impact, where rescued food improves nutrition, dignity and community resilience rather than serving as emergency relief alone.
- Partnership and accountability, with government, businesses and civil society sharing responsibility through transparent metrics and coordinated action.
The lesson of the past year is clear: good intentions are not enough. When food rescue depends primarily on donations and volunteer heroics, it remains fragile precisely when stability is needed most.
Food rescue is not welfare.
It is economic policy.
It is public health policy.
It is environmental policy.
And like any critical infrastructure, it should be sustained not by charity, but by governments and businesses that understand its value to national wellbeing.
Leket Israel’s role is evolving accordingly not merely filling gaps but helping build the systems that turn surplus into stability, waste into dignity, and food into a foundation for a more resilient society.