This holiday season marks the year-and-a-half anniversary of our Home Delivery program. As of this fall, the program has successfully delivered 100,000 meals to Pittsburgh neighbors experiencing food insecurity. From a place of thoughtful reflection, we’d like to take this opportunity to extend a heartfelt thank you to our volunteers.
Since its launch in June of 2021, the Home Delivery program has grown in partners, households, and understanding. Currently, we partner with 14 nonprofits to distribute fresh food to nearly 200 households every month. As we wrap up 2022, we’re so proud to celebrate creating over 100,000 meals to date. We know that this work never could have reached this milestone without the dedication, generosity and kindness shown by our incredible volunteers.
This imperative work ensures that individuals experiencing various socio-economic challenges have access to fundamental nutrition.
The Home Delivery program helps alleviate a vital concern for families experiencing food insecurity so they can better face other challenges such as sickness, immobility, lack of transportation, or loss of employment.
“When I called to let the family know I was on my way, I could hear little voices in the background; little children. I’m a mom of 4. I can’t imagine not knowing how I was going to feed my kids. It really hit me. I am so grateful to get the chance to help.”
- #FoodRescueHero Rebecca
The Home Delivery program is a rich, engaging program for volunteers, too. Each home delivery brings a volunteer to the doorstep of a neighbor’s home who is lacking access to fresh food, right here in Pittsburgh. This interaction offers a firsthand understanding of the immediate impact of Home Delivery. This impact isn’t only felt at the individual level – when each of us gets the food we need, it doesn’t just benefit us or our family, but helps create better outcomes for our community and our city.
“I claimed a Home Delivery nearby and ended up delivering food to three homes in my neighborhood. My neighbors, so close to me, were dealing with food insecurity. It wasn’t like you always think, that hunger is something that affects people far away. Hunger is right here in MY neighborhood. That’s just not right.”
- #FoodRescueHero Jared
With each household we help, we get to see the impact with our own eyes and hearts. This work builds upon itself. Whether shared via a photo from a pickup location or a testimonial from an experience, these tokens of inspiration become the fuel to our volunteers, our staff and our partners in a collective commitment to our work.
Looking ahead to 2023 with hopes to grow this program further, we are encouraged by the dedication of our volunteers. Any 412 Food Rescue staff member can confirm what a true privilege it is being able to discuss and share this impact created via the generosity of our Food Rescue Heroes. While the pandemic shed a focused light on food insecurity in our community, the need is still present as ever as we enter our new reality – and our incredible volunteers have stepped up and continued responding to the need.
Through the combined efforts and talents of volunteers, staff, and partnership, this work will continue to be an agent of change within our communities. In the fullest way we can say it, THANK YOU for lending support to this unique and powerful movement.
– The 412 Food Rescue Team
