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!
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“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.
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"I've had a really awesome experience with RLC. I've had some amazing volunteers and I've created a lot of meaningful relationships with the folks living at the human services agencies I'd bring food to, and the staff at these places, too. Thank you so much for all your help with my rescues. A lot of times things would go wrong and all of you at RLC helped me handle the situation in the most efficient way. Can't thank you all enough!"
- Eva McGill, Long-time RLC volunteer
Due to your help and the support of community members like Eva, we have now rescued 3 million pounds of food cumulatively since 2013. This means that 3 million pounds of food that would have gone to waste and emitted methane gases that would have impacted the environment by 562 pounds of CO2 equivalent was prevented. 3 million pounds of food was not hauled to landfills, and 3 million pounds worth of animals slaughtered, land, water, and other natural resource use was not wasted. Instead, 2.5 million meals were provided so far. Thank you for contributing to this impact.
One million of these pounds were rescued in 2018 alone. This means one third of our entire impact has been made in the past year. We are accelerating rapidly! We have some big plans for the future. We won't stop until food rescue and donating food become the norm instead of throwing food out. Every single food establishment should be donating their excess food, and we as consumers should hold all of our establishments to this standard. We intend on continuing to grow at this rapid rate, so thank you for joining us on this journey and making this happen!
“We were hungry, and RLC supplied wholesome, nutritious food.”
- Student, City-As-School
We received a thank you card from City-As-School after partnering to bring food from nearby restaurants and food establishments to help feed the growing number of food insecure students. This trend is happening all across the country, with community colleges and high schools increasingly looking for solutions.
One solution is all around us. So much good food goes to waste that can be donated. Rescuing Leftover Cuisine has made this possible in 16 cities across the nation, and it's thanks to our food donor partners, monetary donors like you, and passionate volunteers that we have been able to make this impact. As the year comes to a close and we reflect upon the year, we would like to acknowledge the fact that without so many different parties being involved, there would be no Rescuing Leftover Cuisine. There are so many moving pieces, with so many members of the community coming together, that the logistics become crucial. Thank you for ensuring that we have the capacity to solve the issues of carts and equipment breaking down during pickups, inclement weather like pouring rain or snow, and miscommunications between the groups so that we can feed the hungry. Especially those who cannot yet get jobs or earn incomes on their own.
Without your donations none of this impact would be possible, so thank you again so very much for your continued support!
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