[6] Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon allowed Leket Israel volunteers to pick oranges from his 15-dunam orchard in Ramot HaShavim near Kfar Saba.

In 2006, Hands on Tzedakah, a public charity based in Boca Raton, Florida, approached Leket Israel to create a program to provide school children with a minimum of one healthy meal per day.

"This is the kind of program that builds and brings together all segments of the community," according to Shimon Pepper, executive director of the Rockland County, New York Jewish Federation.

[9] In 2003, the first National Insurance Institute Report was released revealing that 25% of the Israeli population was living in poverty and that most suffered from some level of food insecurity, meaning not knowing where one’s next meal was coming from.

Joseph Gitler, then a recent immigrant to Israel, started reaching out to nearby nonprofits and discovered that most of them were spending a large percentage of their budgets on purchasing food.

As an umbrella organization, Leket Israel also works to support its NPO partners through nutrition education, food safety, and capacity building assistance.

NPOs include soup kitchens, community based organizations supplying food packages to the needy, centers for the elderly, shelters and after-school programs for youth at risk, among others.

No other organization in Israel rescues food on a national level from hotels and caterers or works with farmers to glean produce from fields.

of field crops as part of a supplement to rescued food; (c) delivered 70 four-part nutrition workshops on healthy eating on a limited budget; (d) undertook hundreds of site visits to partner NPOs; and (e) invested $110,000 in capacity building funds to help NPOs upgrade basic infrastructure and improve food safety.

Led by MK Uri Maklev with support from MKs Eli Elalouf, Moshe Gafni, Yechiel 'Hilik' Bar, Orly Levi Abekasis, Shuli Mualem and Mordechai Yogev, in cooperation with Leket Israel.

Israel is one of only seven countries in the world (US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Argentina and the UK) who have similar legislation, which encourages the collection of excess food and protects the donors and organizations that distribute it.

Leket Israel rescues a weekly average of 22 tons of dairy, baked, dried, and frozen goods from 25 corporate partners, such as Supersol, Angel Bakeries, and Tara Dairy, who donate tens of thousands of perishable food items nearing their expiry dates and manufactured goods that were overproduced, packaged incorrectly, or cannot be sold commercially.

In order to maintain a high level of food safety, Leket Israel assists NPOs by providing capital for capacity building and infrastructure improvement projects, and often includes the purchase of such items as industrial refrigerators and ovens, lifting jacks, shelving units, and other equipment.