Diminish Food Waste by Rescuing Excess for Hungry

Recently, a rescuer who was profoundly moved by her experience after a food rescue from one of the Pret a Manger locations in Manhattan reached out to us: 

...I volunteered to separate your donated bags of food into smaller containers for residents... I live in the building next door and was happy to help. I’m writing to you to thank you for the donation of food because I took a box back to my building and gave it to a family who’d just lost their husband and father to COVID-19 last week. 

Diego Medina was our super and he was also my next door neighbor. He left behind a wife who was not working, two daughters (one of whom just had twins), a 17 year-old son, and grandkids. The virus takes people so quickly and the family, as you’d expect, is in shock. I gave them, from your donation, sliced turkey, ham, a roast, mango smoothies, a pie, assorted cookies, bacon, boiled eggs, feta cheese, quinoa, salami, coffee, liquid eggs, ground beef, ginger shots, and cayenne shots –a sampling of what we bagged up for people in the building.

On behalf of the Medina family and the many others your organization fed yesterday, thank you from the bottom of all our hearts.  

When I knocked on the Medina’s door yesterday to deliver the box, I was floored at the desperation I saw on Diego’s wife’s face. She doesn’t speak English but I could tell how grateful she was for the food.

It’s hard to believe we’ve already made it halfway through 2020, and to say it’s been eventful would be an understatement. Here at Rescuing Leftover Cuisine, we are honored to be able to serve our communities during these tumultuous times, and we couldn’t do it without your help. RLC has continued rescuing large sums of food that would otherwise go to waste to fill the stomachs of those who have been most affected by this pandemic. 

RLC has the responsibility and the privilege to support families and make sure that hunger is the least of their worries right now. We’re so glad to have you on board this mission. Thank you, thank you, thank you again for being a part of our community, and for your continued support. We will get through this time together and come out even stronger because of it. 

Best,

RLC Team 

As we all settle into the new year, we want to reflect on just how exceptional of a year 2019 was for us here at Rescuing Leftover Cuisine. We couldn't be happier about how the year went, and we certainly couldn't have done it without your support! We're so thankful for the dedication and love that you all have given us over the past year. Thank you, and thank you again.

With your support, last year RLC rescued 1.64 million pounds of food which was able to provide 1.36 million meals! That represents 62.4% increase in pounds of food rescued and meals served from last year. We want to use 2020 as an opportunity to expand our operations to rescue even more food and provide even more meals. Our goal for this year is to rescue 2 million more pounds of food by increasing the number of food donor partnerships we have and connecting more volunteers with their communities. Because of your generous support, you are giving RLC the opportunity to continue connecting food donations to communities who need it the most.

Thank you so, so much for your continued support. We value every single one of our 18,700 supporters. We really couldn't do it without you. Here's to a great 2020!

As the weather gets colder and the days get shorter, we here at Rescuing Leftover Cuisine are excited about ending the great year we’ve had with a BANG! With your support, RLC has had an incredible 2019, and we’re so happy and thankful for the amount of love and commitment you all have shared with our mission over the past year. We’re so grateful for you all. Thank you so much. 

With your support, the amount of food donations we’ve rescued for the year have exceeded 1.3 million pounds (and counting!). With your support, RLC has had amazing opportunities like being invited to the Food Waste Summit in San Francisco and selected as a 2019 ReFED Accelerator organization. You, with your generous support, are allowing RLC to continue to rescue as many food donations this holiday season as possible to donate to individuals who may otherwise not have the opportunity for a nutritious and warm meal this November and December. 

And if you’d like to become even more involved this holiday season, consider becoming an RLC Ambassador or RLC Rep with us to help spread our mission and engage even more people to prevent food waste and provide hearty meals to those who need it most. Contact lauren.rha@rescuingleftovercuisine.org for more info. 

Thank you, thank you, and thanks again. We really couldn’t do what we do without your friendship. See you in 2020!

"Once you fill someone's stomach and they've satisfied that area, they're able to think a whole lot more clearly about the next path or the next transition, the next move that they have to make." -Munoz Price (via CBS News)

Can you believe it's already the end of August? We here at Rescuing Leftover Cuisine can’t believe that more than half of the year has already flown by! 

There have been so many great opportunities for RLC in the first half of 2019, thanks to your generous support and active role in furthering the RLC mission. Your efforts in helping us raise $18,242 during our July Matching Day, as well as your donations during our Little by Little Campaign is evidence of your huge support! We could not have done any of this without you, and your involvement means that you truly understand the importance of food rescue to ensure that only hunger is left behind. 

As you may already know, we rescued one million pounds of food in 2018 alone, but we are excited to announce that in just the first half of 2019, RLC has rescued an additional one million pounds of food! We are on our way to doubling our impact this year, which means providing a cumulative number of 4 million meals to those who are food insecure and preventing the release of the equivalent of more than 1.8 million pounds of CO2 into the air! It is because of your support, friendship, and belief in our mission that we are expanding our outreach and delivering more wholesome, nutritious meals to individuals like Munoz Price, who are able to focus on the next step in their lives because of the warm, donated meals.

Thank you again! See you in the Fall! 

Links:

• RLC Highlighted on CBS News!

“The Council On Adoptable Children (COAC) learned about Rescuing Leftover Cuisine in May 2018 at a networking event held through the Morgan Stanley challenge.  After hearing about RLC’s mission of ensuring that food does not go to waste and ends up in the hands of those who need it, COAC knew that a partnership would be helpful for our clients.  Many of COAC’s clients identify not having enough of the kinds of foods they’d like to eat or not having enough food to last the month during intake. Many of our clients do not have easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables or do not have the money to spend on these items, which is why our first partnership was in receiving donations from a nearby farmer’s market.  Clients have identified this resource as invaluable towards establishing a new, healthier food routine and would arrive to our agency weekly to obtain the fruits and vegetables provided through RLC. We have also received other food donations to provide to clients who have found themselves in need of cooked dishes.

We would absolutely recommend RLC to other organizations.  At times, clients are uncomfortable or don’t have the time to go to food pantries or if they are unsure if they will get the kinds of foods that they would like to be eating when visiting a food pantry, and they have expressed feeling much more comfortable coming to our office, a place they know with staff they’ve worked with before, to obtain food donations.  And, even when they don’t need to regularly obtain food donations, they have expressed feeling more secure in knowing that if they do need assistance, there is an additional source for them to reach out to or come to that would have food available for them.”

- Cyndi Morales, Program Director, NY Council On Adoptable Children, March 2019

RLC has been continuing to grow and reach more food insecure individuals. Part of this impact has extended to children, and we particularly love providing food that would have otherwise gone to waste to children who need it. Food is such an integral part of life, but often times we forget how important it is and regard it as a chore or just something to get done. You, however, have not forgotten this and are making a huge difference in making this impact. Thank you so much for your support, and for making stories like the above happen. 

Links:

• RLC Highlighted on the Rachael Ray Show!