Sustainability and Salvaged Food: 412 Food Rescue

By Layla Joseph

According to Feeding America, 119 billion pounds of food goes to waste each year in the United States, which is the equivalent to 130 billion meals. 

As the season of giving quickly approaches, many of us have an abundance to be thankful for. Some Pittsburgh residents don’t share the same luxury, especially throughout the holiday season. 

While an abundance of food is going to waste across the country, the City of Pittsburgh reports that one in five Pittsburgers have fallen victim to food insecurity. 

Organizations like 412 Food Rescue recognize this problem and have stepped up to the plate, battling food waste by putting food on the table of hungry residents. 

The nonprofit believes that “good food belongs to people, not landfills.” 412 Food Rescue goal is to have a lessened carbon footprint and less empty stomachs in our city.

412 Food Rescue salvages healthy food that is otherwise discarded from places like restaurants, farms and grocery stores before redistributing it to non-profit organizations who support vulnerable community members. This reallocation of food is not only good for our city’s landfill’s but for Pittsburgh residents as well.

The organization depends on volunteers, and by downloading the mobile app, you can register to become a “Food Rescue Hero,” and further their mission.

Interested community members can register for the app, and then pick-up food from one of the registered food donors before dropping the delivery off at one of the 300 non-profit partners.

In addition to the app designed by 412 Food Rescue, the organization also offers other programs such as home delivery to allow isolated residents with little or no transportation or mobility to receive the food they need.

Volunteers who participate in home deliveries may only do so after a free background check is completed through the app to ensure safety of all parties involved.

412 Food Rescue’s Ugly Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program is taking a pause for 2023, but reallocates safe and edible produce that has failed to conform to the food industry’s beauty standards. Instead of allowing this food to rot because of its aesthetic (or lack thereof), the program provides shareholders with 10 to 15 pounds of these locally-sourced fruits and vegetables.

Since the organization was founded in 2015, more than 20 million pounds of food, that otherwise would have been wasted, was redirected onto more than 17 million plates of in-need Pittsburgh residents, according to 412 Food Rescues 2021 Impact Report.