Our story
2015
Starting as a dishwasher and working his way up through top kitchens worldwide, Matt Jozwiak saw firsthand how much perfectly good food was not being used. In 2015, while in the kitchen of Eleven Madison Park, he had an “aha” moment: what if the same care and craft that went into fine dining could also help address food insecurity? That question sparked the vision for Rethink Food.
2017
In October 2017, Matt launched Rethink Food from a shared kitchen, collecting donated food from Eleven Madison Park, NoMad, and other restaurants. He developed systems to turn those ingredients into meals for local communities—laying the foundation for Rethink Food’s mission to create a more sustainable and equitable food system.
2020
As the pandemic caused rising food insecurity and restaurant closures, Rethink Food partnered with Eleven Madison Park and Chef Daniel Humm to launch the Neighborhood Meals Program. The program provided grants to restaurants to prepare meals for local communities—distributing 2.4 million meals in collaboration with 60 restaurant partners and 119 community organizations. Chef Daniel Humm officially became Rethink Food’s co-founder that year.
2021
Between 2021 and 2023, Rethink Food invested $140 million into restaurants, creating an economic engine for small businesses and communities in need. We also expanded to Miami, partnering with The Genuine Hospitality Group. Since then, a 2% opt-out donation at Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink and Amara at Paraiso has raised $1.3 million—funding 246,000 meals and supporting local restaurants in preparing nutritious meals for their communities.
2023
We celebrated 10 million meals distributed, marked by NYC Mayor Eric Adams proclaiming March 27 as “Rethink Food Day.” We also partnered with the City and NYC Health + Hospitals to provide culturally sensitive meals to asylum seekers and testified at the NYC Council Oversight Hearing, highlighting the crucial role of small businesses in addressing food insecurity.
2024
We opened our new Sustainable Community Kitchen in Greenwich Village, growing production to 30,000 meals per week for our community partners. We also closed the year celebrating a milestone: 30 million meals distributed since our founding in 2017.
2025
In 2025, nearly ten years after our founding, we took a major step in pairing service with advocacy through our Chef-to-Community Tax Credit measure. Introduced in the New York State Assembly (A09055), the proposal would provide restaurants with up to $10,000 per location in New York and up to $50,000 federally for donated meals, expanding the Rethink Model and helping food establishments serve more nutritious, chef-prepared meals to neighbors in need. We also launched SERVICE, an intimate dinner series powered by our co-founder Daniel Humm, to raise funds for our work across New York City.