Rick Nahmias
Writer, Photographer, and Founder, Food Forward
“My life’s work has alternated between that of a seeker, disrupter, and ultimately a connector. Tweaking the system to serve those communities it exploits might be the best description of where I thrive most. Along the way, the most satisfying journeys include a healthy dose of joy, subversion, gratitude, and self-reflection. Be it through sharing the surplus produce of a wasteful society with those in need or showing “us” we are actually “them” through a camera’s lens, I’ve found my greatest satisfaction through shining a light on what seems random or outside, and then connecting those dots, hoping for a more powerful result from the alchemy than the simple sum of their parts.”
Biography
Before founding Food Forward in 2009, Rick Nahmias was an award-winning photographer and writer who focused on the faces and stories of marginalized communities. His formal training as a cook, along with his exploration of California’s agricultural workforce in his body of work entitled “The Migrant Project: Contemporary California Farm Workers” gave him a deep appreciation of and involvement in both the gourmet cooking and food justice worlds. These varied interests, along with his conviction that access to healthy, fresh, nutritious food is a human right, culminated in him creating Food Forward. The nonprofit has grown into the region’s largest produce recovery organization, and is currently rescuing 25-30 million pounds of surplus fruits and vegetables annually.
He’s spoken internationally on food justice issues, and his work has been profiled in dozens of publications including The Guardian, Sunset Magazine, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. Nahmias has been named a Good Food Champion by the L.A. City Council and in 2016 he received an inaugural Trailblazer Award from the International Association of Culinary Professionals. He was named a 2017-18 Senior Fellow at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Policy, and one of 40 Inspiring Leaders by the Center for Nonprofit Management. He serves on the Leadership Circle of the L.A. Food Policy Council, and when he’s not in the kitchen, he’s learning steel guitar with his trusty Catahoula Leopard Dog Rufus by his side.