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Program gets Pittsburgh's company holiday party leftovers to the needy

Courtesy 412 Food Rescue

The laden buffets at corporate holiday parties suggest the year’s final weeks are a time of plenty — and leftovers abound.

But for many, this is also a time of tight budgets and increased food insecurity.

A new initiative by Pittsburgh’s 412 Food Rescue seeks to bridge the gap.

The nonprofit’s mission is to get good food to people in need, and Holiday Heroes extends it by focusing on parties that take place at year’s end. It’s a time when food waste — already an epidemic in the U.S. — skyrockets by 25%, according to the group.

“We thought that this program really would resonate with companies and individuals who look around at their party and think, ‘Wow, this is a lot of food, we don’t want it to go into a landfill, how can we make sure that it gets to someone that is food insecure?” said 412 Food Rescue CEO Alyssa Cholodofsky.

With a phone call or email, party organizers can make sure their leftovers are picked up and delivered to places like public housing, senior high-rises, veterans’ centers and after-school programs.

The offer applies only to unserved leftovers that were prepared in a facility inspected by the county’s department of health, and that have been kept covered, labeled and properly stored.

“Oftentimes there’s a whole tray of something that is set aside and not put out and those are the types of items that we’re able to rescue and get right away to a nonprofit partner,” Cholodofsky said.

412 Food Rescue, founded in 2015, touts itself as the nation’s largest volunteer food-rescue organization. It uses a smartphone-enabled on-demand transport model to move food from restaurants, grocery stores and other facilities to nonprofits who distribute food to individual households.

With the help of a network of some 23,000 volunteers behind the wheel, the groups has rescued 34 million pounds of food, delivering it to people in need while keeping it out of landfills, where it would produce emissions that contribute to global warming.

Those with extra food from a corporate holiday event can call 412-277-3831 or email becca@412foodrescue,org.

More information is here.

Bill O'Driscoll