Building Tour: Cohen Community Food Rescue Center for City Harvest

Join us for a one-hour tour of the recently completed Cohen Community Food Rescue Center for City Harvest in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. This adaptive reuse project was completed as a collaboration between Ennead Architects and Rockwell Group, who converted an existing 19th century train warehouse into the headquarters for City Harvest, New York City’s first and largest food rescue organization. City Harvest rescues perfectly good nutritious food that would otherwise go to waste and delivers it for free to help feed New Yorkers who are experiencing food insecurity. This transformative intervention co-locates the administrative arm of the organization with their warehouse and food rescue and delivery operations to streamline workflow and build a strong culture and community within the organization. In addition to the workplace and food distribution programs, the Food Rescue Center is also home to The Venue at City Harvest, featuring a newly designed demonstration kitchen, event space and rooftop terrace. The project was design by Ennead Architects (Design Architect, Interior, and Exterior), Rockwell Group, (Interior Architectural Design for Event Space & Demonstration Kitchen), and Ware Malcomb (Logistics Spaces and Architect of Record). The tour will be led by City Harvest’s Julia Foster, Ennead Architects’ Shalini Abeyaratne, and Rockwell Group’s Matthew Winter.

About City Harvest:
City Harvest is New York’s first and largest food rescue organization, collecting perfectly good food that would otherwise go to waste to help feed the millions of New Yorkers who struggle to put meals on their tables. In over 40 years serving New Yorkers experiencing food insecurity, City Harvest has rescued more than one billion pounds of fresh, nutritious food and delivered it—free of charge—to hundreds of food pantries, soup kitchens, community partners, and their own Mobile Markets® across the five boroughs. This year, City Harvest will rescue and distribute more than 77 million pounds of nutritious food to those in need. By redirecting that food to families, this organization’s work will also prevent the equivalent of more than 20 million kilograms of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. Named one of America's Top 100 Charities by Forbes, City Harvest also works alongside community partners to build their capacity, expand nutrition education, and advocate for systems change through effective public policy. Since their founding in 1982, City Harvest has always been there to feed our city—one day, one meal, one New Yorker at a time. To learn more, please visit cityharvest.org.

Tour Guides:
Shalini Abeyaratne AIA, NOMA, LEED AP BD+C, Senior Associate, Ennead
Julia Foster, Vice President, Marketing and Communications, City Harvest
Matthew Winter, RA, LEED AP, Studio Leader and Associate Principal, Rockwell Group

About the Tour Guides:
Shalini Abeyaratne is a Senior Associate at Ennead Architects, with deep expertise in project management for educational, cultural, healthcare, and institutional buildings. She is dedicated to improving the places we live, work, study, heal and play for all, and brings a focus on community needs and the lens of equitable design to every project. Making the field of architecture more diverse is a critical part of Abeyaratne’s personal and professional mission. A member of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), she mentors young architects and engages in outreach efforts at schools and colleges and helped to establish an employee resource group at Ennead in support of inclusivity and awareness. Abeyaratne is also active in research work for Ennead Lab.

Julia Foster leads City Harvest’s Marketing & Communications team, overseeing brand marketing, advertising, digital, and press to position the organization as a leader in the anti-hunger movement and raise awareness of our work locally and nationally. A native New Yorker, Foster joined City Harvest in 2013 after serving as the Director of Marketing & Communications at the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF). Prior to that, she worked in marketing at a variety of consumer facing brands, such as Next Jump, Plum TV, SpaFinder, and Organic Style Magazine.

Matthew Winter is a Studio Leader and Associate Principal at Rockwell Group, bringing 20 years of award-winning hospitality experience to the firm. Winter’s current and recent projects include One Madison Avenue's amenities with chef Daniel Boulud; the Paddock Club for the Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix; the pro bono initiative DineOut NYC; Warner Music Group's headquarters in the landmark Ford Factory in Los Angeles; Cedric’s at The Shed in New York; and Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. Prior to joining Rockwell Group in 2016, he worked as the Studio Director at Roman and Williams, leading the design for hotels, restaurants, and residences. Winter received his B.A. from the University of Notre Dame, where he studied architecture.