What begins in a chicken coop doesn’t usually end in a logistics powerhouse, but that is the arc of Gidi Kroch’s career, from joining a small nonprofit called Table to Table in 2006 to leading Leket Israel. This lifeline now feeds over 415,000 people every week. “I thought I’d stay a little while and move on,” he said. “Eighteen years later, I’m still here, we’re over 160 people in the organization, and we have a 6,000-square-meter logistics center. Half of it is building capacity. We’ve scaled up.”
The name changed to Leket Israel, but the mission remained clear: rescue surplus food and get it to those who need it most. What Kroch couldn’t have imagined was just how many times the organization would have to reinvent itself along the way.
The first turning point
When asked about Leket's response to emergencies, Kroch didn’t start with the October 7 war or recent tensions with Iran. Instead, he looked back to COVID. “Actually, I think we began adapting promptly during COVID,” he said. “COVID was a major global upheaval, not just in Israel, and we had to change too.”
Surplus food, which is vital to the organization, disappeared overnight. Restaurants closed, hotels shut down, and catered events stopped. “At that time, we had very little rescuable food,” Kroch noted. It was a critical moment. “We faced a choice: do nothing or reinvent ourselves. We chose to innovate quickly.”
This reinvention involved shifting from food rescue to food purchasing, an unprecedented move for Leket. It also sparked new initiatives: Leket Express, a fleet of trucks creating pop-up produce markets in neighborhoods lacking nonprofits, and a soup program that transformed surplus vegetables into hundreds of nourishing meals daily. “For seniors, it’s essential,” Kroch explained. “Suddenly, a bowl of soup and bread becomes a complete meal for them at the end of the day.”
The October 7 war presented different challenges. Tens of thousands of evacuees were moved into hotels, often for months. And as families grew tired of bland institutional meals, proper nutrition was nearly lost.
“We can’t stand by there,” Kroch said firmly. “One of our goals is to teach about nutrition and educate on healthy eating. So, we opened a cart filled with fresh produce so that children and families can enjoy healthy food because their livelihood depends on what they eat at the hotel.”
Initially, the stands offered only raw foods. But evacuees soon requested basic items like onions and potatoes. “We were kind of like, why would you want that? How are you going to eat this?” Kroch remembered. The answer was simple: “We’ve got these hot plates in our rooms, and now we cook for ourselves.”
That act of cooking grew into something bigger. “It turned out to be very community organized,” Kroch reflected. “Elderly people would sit down, cut apples into small pieces, and put them in bowls, and kids would come by and pick them up. And what could you want more than that?”
During the Iran escalation, Leket expanded the system across ten hotels. As evacuees returned home, the stands were dismantled, but the lesson remained: reinventing is not optional; it’s necessary for survival.
Tuned into every need
At the core of Leket’s approach is a surprisingly simple practice: asking people what they need. “At the beginning of the war, we sent out a team of four people into the fields, hotels, everywhere, to research what people need, what they require,” Kroch explained. “Because I can give them one thing, and they’ll say thank you, and maybe later throw it out the window. But when you talk to people and they know you’re truly interested, then you can help them.
And if listening is the guiding principle, volunteers are the driving force. After October 7, the ban on Palestinian workers and the departure of Thai agricultural workers left fields unharvested. “A farmer can grow, but if he doesn’t have anyone to pick, that’s a huge problem,” Kroch said.
So Leket mobilized volunteers. “We created an opportunity,” he explained. “They don’t have to drive. They go to a bus stop, a designated place where a bus will pick them up, take them to a field… and they simply help farmers.”
It worked better than anyone expected. In 2024 alone, more than 95,000 volunteers joined Leket’s efforts, over half of them directly harvesting crops. Farmers, initially hesitant, became deeply appreciative – some even barbecued for the volunteers in gratitude.
The system was highly successful because it reached into another sector impacted by the crisis: Israel’s tour guides. With tourism stopped, guides helped organize volunteers, worked with farmers, and managed logistics. “Everyone is so happy about the work they do,” Kroch said. “They’re genuinely helping. They’re helping the farms in Israel. They’re helping themselves, doing something meaningful.”
This growing involvement is a blessing, as the need for Leket has never been greater. Before the war, the organization was feeding around 230,000 people every week. Now, that number has increased to over 415,000.
“We see more and more families that have never asked before, and suddenly they have to ask,” Kroch said. “They don’t even know how to navigate the system, how to approach a nonprofit for support. They just say, “We’re a family, we can’t make ends meet anymore. We need some kind of help from you.”
Partnerships have also grown. Leket now collaborates with more than 300 agencies across Israel, distributing not only to families but also to schools, including “last chance” schools where meals can determine whether a child stays in class or drops out entirely.
“Nutrition is key”
Kroch’s vision for the future isn’t just about volume – it’s about health. “It’s very populist to say, well, I wish for a time that Leket won’t be needed,” he admitted. “Yeah, I do wish for a time like that. But it won’t happen. We’re a capitalist country, and in a capitalist country, there tend to be poor and unserved people in terms of food. Leket will always find these people.”
Instead, he focuses on nutrition. “Nutrition is key to so many things,” he said. “It’s key for kids, it’s key for pregnant women, it’s key for the elderly. Once people learn more about that and eat healthier, they’ll be healthier. And maybe they’ll be able to leave the cycle of poverty and hunger.”
The solution, he argues, is already within Israel’s reach. “Every year, two and a half million tons of food are wasted or discarded, valued at over 20 billion shekels,” he explained. “To address food security, you probably need about 4 billion shekels annually. So, this is a huge issue. We could solve everything if we have the right approach.”
Kroch returns to what matters most. “When you focus on the people, you see the people, you concentrate on them, and you find out what they need and want,” he said. It is an ethos born of crisis but sustained by conviction: that food is more than sustenance, it’s dignity, community, and hope.
Rescuing carrots, organizing buses, setting up fruit stalls in hotel lobbies, it may not be glamorous work. But it’s work that keeps a nation standing. And in times of war, pandemic, and rising poverty, it’s also work that guides the way forward. Because, as Kroch reminds us, “What can you want more than that?”
This article was written in cooperation with Leket Israel