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Award winning World Food Prize nominee and CNN Hero Gary Oppenheimer

Nationally recognized game changer in the landscape of food waste, hunger and disruptive innovations available for keynote speeches and panel discussions.

Gary Oppenheimer, a CNN Hero, a World Food Prize nominee, Points of Light winner, lecturer and speaker (including two TEDx talks) plus a Google Tech Talk, Huff Post “ 2011 Game Changer” and “Greatest Person of the Day“, James Beard Foundation Food Waste Advisory Board member, winner of the Russell Berrie Foundation’s “Making A Difference” award, Glynwood’s “Wave of the Future” award, Elfenworks “In Harmony With Hope” award, a Purpose Prize Fellow, and Echoing Green semifinalist.

He is also founder of AmpleHarvest.org and makes his home in the mountains of northern New Jersey after having lived on a boat on the Hudson River in Manhattan since 1978. He is a Master Gardener, Rutgers Environmental Steward, former community garden director, former Environmental Commissioner in northern New Jersey, dancer, avid gardener and long distance cyclist.

An early pioneer in the electronic mail,  produced what is believe to be the first “ezine” – published from 1985 to 1996 – while working from a home office located on the boat.

Aware of the increasing hunger problem in America and, in 2009, after seeing the amount of wasted food in the community garden as well as other gardens around the country, he created AmpleHarvest.org – a nationwide program enabling America’s 42 million home and community gardeners to donate their bounty to thousands of food pantries nationwide.

Named CNN Hero a year later, he was introduced on the Larry King Live show which was followed by a live interview with CNN anchor Ali Velshi.

He has appeared in numerous radio interviews and his work has been the subject of countless blogs and newspaper articles.

Because AmpleHarvest.org worked closely with First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative to improve fresh food access at thousands of food pantries nationwide, he had the opportunity to meet the President and First Lady and she subsequently highlighted AmpleHarvest.org in a speech in early 2012.

He also enjoys boating, hiking, farming (chickens for eggs and vegetables) and attacking challenges of all sorts. He is a firm believer in the notion that to do the impossible, you must first believe it isn’t.

Contact Information

Gary is available for keynote speaking engagements and panel discussions, and also includes a free colloquium to a nearby college or university with the engagement.

Please contact A-Speakers bureau, All American Speakers agency  or info@AmpleHarvest.org for more information.

Additional Background Information about Gary Oppenheimer

After graduating from college with a degree in psychology, Gary promptly lost all interest in the field and instead became one of the early geeks in the personal computing arena (he soldered a computer together in 1976 – he still has it but is now afraid to now power it up) and designed a prototype email program for a mini-computer in 1977.

An early pioneer in the electronic mail industry, MCI Inc. asked Gary in 1985 to help them sell and support the then fledgling MCI Mail electronic mail service. Within a few years, he became their largest global sales agent (including producing what is believe to be the first “ezine” – published from 1985 to 1996) – while working from a home office located on the boat.

In the early 2000’s after buying a home deep in the woods in a rural northern New Jersey and planting an orchard and garden, Gary realized he actually needed to learn how to grow things and became a Master Gardener. A year later, he completed the Rutgers Environmental Stewards program.

Over the next several years, he expanded his home gardens, became a lecturer, an environmental commissioner in his town, advocated for region wide watershed preservation laws and became the director of a community garden.

Aware of the increasing hunger problem in America and, in 2009, after seeing the amount of wasted food in the community garden as well as other gardens around the country, he created AmpleHarvest.org – a nationwide effort to enable America’s 40+ million home gardeners who grow food to be able to easily find a local food pantry eager for their excess garden bounty.

Gary has also presented AmpleHarvest.org to USDA People’s Garden Initiative Conference in Washington DC, hosted a webinar for 100,000 invited USDA employees on gardening and hunger and has been interviewed numerous time by both print and electronic (local and network) media outlets nationwide.

In addition to helping AmpleHarvest.org continue its expansion to food pantries and gardeners nationwide, Gary also does public speaking about hunger and AmpleHarvest.org , individuals making a difference in their community as well as a variety of environmental topics (contactinfo@AmpleHarvest.org for more speaker information).

More Than me” (by Kelly Eldredge, published 2010), a book on “people reaching out to help others and in turn experiencing beautiful and unexpected changes of their own” has an entire chapter on Gary and his creation of AmpleHarvest.org.

Supporting the increasing interest younger people are placing on reducing food waste and related health issues, Gary has accepted a position on the Board of Visitors for the Campus Kitchen Project as well as acting as an advisor to the Food Recovery Network.