In response to COVID-19 and the impact that it has had on small businesses and hunger, from May 2020 – December 2021, 412 Food Rescue operated the Community Takeout program – a program to provide healthy meals to those in need throughout our community while simultaneously supporting local restaurants.
Community Takeout
COVID-19 RESPONSE
Supporting local restaurants, their staff, and our community - one meal at a time.
Why Community Takeout?
Community Takeout was crafted to support restaurants and their staff through the COVID-19 crisis by providing compensation for single-serve meals that were distributed to communities experiencing heightened food insecurity.
The program launched in May 2020 as a scale-up of the Double Play Program founded by Dr. Mark Baratz. By the end of 2021, over 230,000 meals were delivered by volunteers mobilized through the 412 Food Rescue app.
Funding was directed to restaurants to cover meal costs, expenses related to logistics, delivery and program coordination, and a portion benefited the Greater Pittsburgh Restaurant Workers Mutual Aid (PRWA) — a grassroots organization aiding unemployed restaurant workers.
412 Food Rescue extends our deepest thanks the the financial sponsors, individual donors, local restaurants, and Food Rescue Hero volunteers who came together to serve our community in a time of crisis.
Community Takeout operated in three region-specific iterations in partnership with Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, City of Pittsburgh District 8, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, and Allegheny County Economic Development. From May 2020 – December 2021, this collaborative effort is estimated to have resulted in $1.7 million dollars of economic development in the City of Pittsburgh and across Allegheny County.
