'DoorDash For Surplus Food': 412 Food Rescue Expands To Home Delivery Amid Coronavirus Pandemic, Wins National Award For App
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- 412 Food Rescue is the widely-celebrated Pittsburgh nonprofit with a mission that's never been more important.
In fact, Fast Company magazine just named 412 Food Rescue the winner of its 2020 World Changing Ideas Award.
The magazine called it "DoorDash for surplus food," and co-founder and CEO Leah Lizarondo says that's exactly right.
412 Food Rescue says it rescues perfectly good but unsellable food - that would otherwise be wasted - from grocery stores and restaurants and uses its Food Rescue Hero app to dispatch volunteers to pick up the food and deliver it to food pantries or other charities.
But now it's going a step further.
A video on the nonprofit's Facebook page says, "In response to the Covid-19 crisis, for the first time we have enabled our food rescue heroes to serve those who are homebound and unable to get food support."
"In this COVID crisis, where so many of those that are the most vulnerable are actually stuck in their homes, seniors, people who are disabled, they can't even get to food pantries," Lizarondo said. "We had to find a way to serve them even in this crisis. So we launched home delivery."
Lizarondo says those in need of delivered food should call 211 to be connected with a food pantry or charity.
She says 412 Food Rescue gets referrals from about 400 nonprofits in the Pittsburgh region.
To date, more than 10,000 volunteers have downloaded the Food Rescue Hero app.
The organization has already expanded to Philadelphia, Cleveland and Los Angeles, with a goal of operating in 100 cities within the next decade.
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