“Change Makers Unite!”

By August 14, 2023Article

412 Food Rescue knows that individuals and families have a greater opportunity to thrive when they have access to nutritious food. We are actively addressing this need by using innovative technology to connect food donors with community partners, to prioritize convenient food access, reducing both hunger and food waste.

Through support of the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s Impact Grant program, 412 Food Rescue will be able to continue to expand and scale our revolutionary food insecurity intervention and food waste prevention efforts. With this award, we will reach families and individuals experiencing food insecurity in Western, PA providing them with healthy, surplus food!

To date, 412 Food Rescue has diverted more than 26 million pounds of food waste in Southwestern PA, the equivalent of 21.6 million meals. This also represents the mitigation of 70 million pounds of CO2 emissions. 412 Food Rescue is powered through thousands of volunteers and Food Rescue Hero, the only food recovery technology platform purposefully designed to make a greater impact, together.

Our work is underpinned by human centered design. We believe that food insecurity intervention needs to adopt a philosophy of convenience and dignity—one that places the people experiencing the crisis at the center of program design. We believe everyone has a right to convenient, healthy food.

From 2018 to 2022, 412 Food Rescue has enabled more than 228,000 people living in high poverty areas to be within a 15-minute walk of food support! We partner with other non-profit organizations such as low-income/senior housing sites, shelters serving domestic abuse victims, teen support services, local libraries, and many more. These community partners then provide the freshly recovered food to food-insecure families and individuals in their neighborhoods.

The blue polygons represent areas within which a person can walk to a 412 Food Rescue nonprofit partner in fifteen minutes.

412 Food Rescue is grateful to be one of the 110 organizations in our region that received a Community Impact Grant from the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania.

We are proud to be a part of this group that will collectively serve more than 500,000 people across our area!

Together, with our network of Food Rescue Heroes, we are change makers helping to improve the lives of our neighbors! #ChangemakersUnite

To become a Food Rescue Hero, visit: https://412foodrescue.org/get-started/

To learn more about the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania visit: https://uwswpa.org/how-we-help/

Read more here: https://nextpittsburgh.com/latest-news/united-way-community-impact-grants-boost-150-pittsburgh-region-organizations/