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412 Food Rescue helping restaurants feed the hungry this winter | TribLIVE.com
Food & Drink

412 Food Rescue helping restaurants feed the hungry this winter

Paul Guggenheimer
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Courtesy: 412 Food Rescue
Carl Pierre-Louis prepares Community Takeout meals in May during the pilot phase of the Community Takeout program.

It’s an idea that not only helps restaurants deal with another shutdown but also provides food for people in need this winter.

Starting Monday, Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership and 412 Food Rescue joined forces to provide restaurants regular weekly income and bring free meals to people experiencing food insecurity.

The program is called Community Takeout and was created by 412 Food Rescue in May to support service industry workers during last spring’s red phase of covid-19 stay at home orders.

This second phase coincides with Gov. Tom Wolf’s three-week suspension of indoor dining and is supported by a covid-19 relief grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation.

On weekdays through May 2021, workers at participating Downtown restaurants are being paid to prepare more than 200 meals for people in need. Grant funding of about $10,000 per week will help restaurants cover costs of supplies and employees to prepare about 1,225 meals each week.

Restaurant owners who took part in the program earlier this year say it’s been a life-line for their businesses.

“We did it with them over the summer. It not only was a great source of income when it was very slow and we were just doing take-out, but it helped us keep some employees that otherwise would have been furloughed or laid off,” said Aimee Anoia who co-owns DiAnoia’s Eatery with her husband Dave. “It was a really nice thing where not only was 412 Food Rescue helping the community out but they were also helping us.”

Leah Lizarondo, co-founder and CEO of 412 Food Rescue, said restaurants have consistently supported her efforts over the years and she wanted to give back.

“We went to these restaurants and we said ‘we want to help support you through the red phase and hopefully it’s enough support so that we can help you weather it,’” said Lizarondo.

Last spring, seven of the eight restaurants that partnered with 412 Food Rescue survived the red phase and were able to provide over 15,000 meals during that first round. The Community Takeout program also raised $30,000 for the Pittsburgh Restaurant Workers Aid Fund during the red phase last spring.

“Programs like this are much needed right now to support restaurants,” said Anoia. “The takeout business that’s happening will never replace what running a normal sit-down restaurant was. Restaurants won’t be able to survive on just that.”

This next iteration resulted from overtures made by the City of Pittsburgh and Downtown Partnership to 412 Food Rescue. In mid-January, the program will expand significantly to include as many as 15 restaurants Downtown that have been impacted by the drastic decrease in regular customers and provide meals through May, when outdoor dining is expected to resume.

“Hopefully, in June vaccinations are well under way and the weather is better and we’ll be better able to support these restaurants during this difficult time,” Lizarondo said.

After each day’s meals are prepared 412 Food Rescue volunteers will make no-contact deliveries of the food to the organization’s nonprofit partners serving people who are food insecure.

“It’s a win-win,” Anoia said. “There is a lot of depressing news and things out there. So, being able to see that our food is going to do something good for other people not only created a morale boost for the team at work, it just felt good to know food is getting somewhere where it really needs to be right now.”

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