Our Story
We didn’t set out to build a platform. We set out to solve a crisis.
I’m Richard Cumming, and together with my wife and partner Johanna Salazar, we founded FoodStream after seeing the gaps in our food system up close. When the pandemic hit, we shut down our creative agency of almost a decade and joined José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen, leading emergency food relief efforts across NYC. We helped fund farms, support restaurants, and deliver millions of meals to communities in need.
What we saw was powerful, and unacceptable. Food was available, but disconnected. Solutions existed, but isolated. Organizations were doing heroic work, but without the tools to collaborate, too much was lost.
So we built FoodStream.
Launched in 2021, FoodStream began as a directory for emergency food access and quickly grew to over 850 organizations. In response to members asking for more, we launched FoodStream Connect, a real-time social platform built to help nonprofits, schools, pantries, farms, and food businesses find each other, share resources, and take action faster.
We’re also working with supermarkets and food retailers to rescue and redistribute surplus food, cutting waste and feeding more people. Through FoodStream Learn, we’re now delivering food education across all five NYC boroughs. And up next is FoodStream Delivery, a logistics layer to move food even faster from food donors to those who need it most.
But our vision doesn’t stop there.
We’re on a mission to build the largest global community fighting food insecurity, powered by AI, real-time data, and collective action. One day, FoodStream will be the most trusted source for understanding where food is, where it’s needed, and how to get it there, even across borders.
We believe this platform can help change not just how food moves, but how food policy is written, how laws are shaped, and how entire systems are rebuilt.
If your work touches food, or if your values align with ours, you belong here.
Let’s build something big. Together.
—
Richard & Johanna
Founders, FoodStream Network
