An incredible night celebrating the hard work of City Harvest.
On Wednesday, April 10, City Harvest hosted their annual fundraising gala to support their mission in providing New York City residents with quality food ingredients and increased food security. This annual gala serves as City Harvest’s most important fundraising event of the year. And this year, City Harvest aims to rescue more than 77 million pounds of perfectly good, nutritious food that would otherwise go to waste and deliver it to hundreds of soup kitchens and food pantries across New York City.
This year’s gala them was The Magic of Motown and was held at grand Cipriani 42nd Street location. And in attendance of this year’s gala included celebrities and culinary titans such as Chrissy Teigen, Busy Phillips, Eric Riper, Gail Simmons, Geoffrey Zakarian, Jane Krakowski, and many more. And this year’s special honoree was none other than EGOT winning singer, songwriter, and composer, John Legend.
As guests were seated at the beginning of the event, the gala kicked off with an incredible performance musical tribute acts by The Supremes and The Jackson 5. These acts performed some of the groups’ best hits and showcased the essence of Motown music. Afterwards, the host of the evening, Taye Diggs, took the stage to welcome the gala guests to the evening and talk about how important City Harvest’s mission is. City Harvest then brought to the stage their first honoree, Alex Cohen. Cohen has been working with City Harvest for a number of years as their Chief Operating Officer and with her hard work, allowed City Harvest to grow and feed a large number of New York City residents dealing with food insecurity.
Next to the stage was a longtime supporter of City Harvest, Chrissy Teigen. Teigen gave a heartwarming speech to introduce her husband and City Harvest honoree, John Legend. John Legend took the stage to commend the incredible work that City Harvest does and thanked Sandra and Eric Ripert for introducing them to City Harvest. In his speech he gave kudos to all the hard workers that help feed hungry New Yorkers. And later into his speech, he called out the work of another food distribution charity, World Central Kitchen. In this portion, he honored the people from that organization who gave their lives to feed starving people in Gaza. Legend made a point to support the people struggling in Gaza and called for a cease of the collective starvation and collective punishment being brought unto the people of Gaza. Legend’s speech was met with large applause and cheers for his speech as he exited the stage.
Afterwards, the live auction commenced where guests had the opportunity to bid on a selection of items which included a private dinner with top chef judges Gail Simmons and Tom Colicchio. The auction was electric as people bid on these incredible experiences which would all go to City Harvest’s great cause. The night ended with a beautiful dessert and lasting words from City Harvest.
