After the annual Summer Fancy Food Show closed Tuesday at New York's Jacob Javits Convention Center, the leftovers were not to go to waste. Instead, the thousands of pounds of gourmet food were redistributed to food pantries in New York to be given to New York's nearly 60,000 homeless people.

Among the foods scooped up by volunteers to distribute were "mountains of artisanal cheeses, salsas and jams, plus chocolate, olive oil, prosciutto, and spices," the Associated Press reports. Many in the homeless population of NYC were handed crackers with foie gras at a food pantry in the Upper West Side.

The AP reports:

They were volunteers for the massive food giveaway — an annual joint effort by the Specialty Food Association that produces the show and City Harvest, a leading anti-hunger nonprofit that feeds at least half a million New Yorkers a week.

Nearly a fifth of the 8.4 million people who live in New York are estimated to suffer from what's called food insecurity, meaning they don't have consistent access to safe, nutritious food, according to the hunger-relief nonprofit Feeding America.

City Harvest's Matthew Reich, the nonprofit's vice president of food sourcing, told the AP it was a nice break for most in the homeless community.

"For the people we serve in New York City every day, when they don't have enough to eat, we normally deliver potatoes, cabbage, onions, apples — a wide variety of fresh fruit and vegetables; we normally don't deliver $30-a-pound cheese or pate," Reich said. "So this is a treat for all."

The donation shares similarities with a recent stunt in New York's Central Park, but this time without the added disappointment and self-aggrandizing.

[Image via AP]