Pittsburgh is poised to host the biggest event in its history, with 500,000 to 700,000 fans from across the country set to arrive for the NFL Draft in April — and venues set to prepare heaps of food for the festivities. Ensuring that none of it goes to waste will be nonprofit 412 Food Rescue, which is coordinating with event organizers to collect good food that has gone uneaten and transport it to nonprofits serving Pittsburgh communities.

The organization will also host its own festivity as the dust settles: “Fourth & Feast: From the Field to the Table,” a special family-style, zero-waste meal created with rescued food — with the help of a yet-to-be-revealed Steelers legend — which will take place at its Good Food Project (GFP) in the Food and Energy Hub in Millvale on Sun., April 26, at 3 p.m.

The invitation-only event will include a rolling meal, plus a fireside chat emcee’d by Natalie Bencivenga and featuring Alyssa Cholodofsky of 412 Food Rescue, a representative of Visit Pittsburgh and Lilith owner and chef Jamilka Borges.

412 Food Rescue has been transforming surplus food into abundance since its founding in 2015. Now the largest volunteer food rescue organization in the country, with a growing community of 26,000+ volunteers, it has diverted over 39 million pounds of food bound for the waste stream in Western Pennsylvania — the equivalent of more than 33 million meals — mitigating over 83 million pounds of CO₂ emissions in the process.

In 2016 412 Food Rescue launched Food Rescue Hero, a proprietary app that makes claiming food rescues easy and convenient, guiding each volunteer every step of the way from pickup to delivery. The platform is licensed for use at 22 food rescue organizations in North America, including in nearby Philadelphia, Erie, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. The 63,000 volunteer drivers coordinated by the app have diverted over 280 million pounds of food.

Using this technology, 412 Food Rescue has previously mustered its network of local volunteers to recover food from other large events, including concerts by Billie Eilish and Machine Gun Kelly.

Come April, as millions have their eyes on the NFL picks, the 412 Food Rescue team and thousands of regular Pittsburghers will be working hard behind the scenes, ensuring the safe transport of extra food from the draft days at Acrisure Stadium on April 23 – 25, as well as other official Draft events.

That hard work will be celebrated at “Fourth & Feast,” with donors, contributors and volunteers invited to the event. In addition to the meal, the evening will also include a talk about the impact of Pittsburgh sports teams on sustainability and food insecurity in the region, and guests will have a chance to see how this zero-waste kitchen handles bulk surplus food donations, transforming them into hundreds of satisfying and nutritious meals that are delivered to the community every week.

“As a homegrown organization powered by volunteers and partners across Pittsburgh, we’re deeply proud of our community,” says 412 Food Rescue CEO Alyssa Cholodofsky. “We’re ready to undertake this major food recovery project with them and excited to celebrate together afterward.”