Feed People, Not Landfills with RLC

We are setting records this year at Rescuing Leftover Cuisine, and it is thanks to our generous supporters like you. We could not do this work without you, and as the end of the year approaches, we are filled with gratitude for your role in helping us rescue more food than ever before.

When food is wasted, it drains our economy, natural resources, and communities. Intuitively, we all understand this and can each do our part to reduce our food waste at home and when eating out. But when companies have thousands of pounds of surplus food they need to dispose of quickly, finding an organization that can accept and use such large quantities of food can prove to be a difficult task. This is where Rescuing Leftover Cuisine comes in. 

In August, Rescuing Leftover Cuisine rescued 856,000 pounds of food, the most we have ever rescued in a month. We rescued 325 pallets of food from a single donor, preventing 533,000 pounds of food from going to waste. We also continued our regularly scheduled weekly pickups with the help of our robust network of volunteers. By the end of the third quarter of 2024, we had successfully rescued over 4 million pounds of food and were only 3,000 pounds away from reaching an all-time total of 18 million pounds, which we have since surpassed. 

This food you have helped us rescue has gone on to feed people facing food insecurity across the country. One of our nonprofit recipients in Los Angeles recently remarked: "When someone in need is hungry, the simple act of giving decent and delicious food makes them easier to reach. This donation goes a long way in helping to establish trust. And trust is the key that opens the door to saving a life." We also heard directly from a food recipient in New York City: "The food I get here on Monday is letting me survive. My college cannot give me Halal food and the salad from here I can trust. I am so thankful."

One of our generous GlobalGiving donors (anonymous) said it best: “No one should ever go hungry in a country full of food.” We thank you for your continued support in this critical work and ask that you consider making an end-of-year donation if you are able.  

Links:

• RLC's Website
• RLC's Instagram
• RLC's LinkedIn

We appreciate the outpouring of generosity and encouragement our supporters like you have provided to put RLC on track for our most impactful year yet.  Your support during the first half of the year has helped put us on a trajectory to rescue over 4.5 million pounds of food by year's end, providing more than 3.7 million meals to individuals and families across the country who are facing food insecurity.  We are very excited about these figures, but we know that the numbers alone do not tell the story of the impact of our supporters' contributions to RLC.  To help shed light on how our food rescues are supporting people in need every day, we want to share the following anecdote from one of our partners that provides permanent housing for low-income men and women coming out of the shelter system...

The staff at the partner organization explained that one-third of the building comes every Friday looking forward to food donations from RLC. They also remember a time during the pandemic when the Friday food donations temporarily stopped, and recall when residents continually asked when the donations would return. Thankfully, RLC now donates to this partner organization on both Thursdays and Fridays, providing baked goods from Levain Bakery and catered meal trays from a company called Retool. Recently, the staff has seen an uptick in food insecurity, with residents of the building even traveling to different neighborhoods seeking lower food prices at the grocery store.  RLC's food donations are making a huge difference to help these residents get back on their feet and break the cycle of poverty.

In addition to rescuing more food than ever in our organization's history, we've also made big efforts to build the capacity of our newer branches including Los Angeles and Chicago.  These branches are quickly becoming substantial parts of our food rescue totals and continue to grow at fast rates.

There were many highlights of the second quarter of 2024 which helped make it one to remember.  Some highlights include:

• Rescuing food from two Major League Baseball stadiums, Citi Field in New York and Fenway Park in Boston
• Increasing the number of large-scale donations, rescuing a variety of food from winter melon to frozen fish
• Onboarding another food rescue location with one of our most numerous food donors, Pret A Manger, rescuing food from their locations in Los Angeles 
• Holding our annual gala that brought together celebrity chefs and RLC supporters to celebrate RLC and raise funds to continue growing our operations
• Representing RLC and innovative food rescue at the 2024 ReRED Food Waste Summit in Baltimore

As we continue to grow, we remain thankful for each contribution that is made to support our mission to be the critical link between excess food and the people who need it most.  We understand that addressing food insecurity is a monumental task, but it has been shown that there is more than enough food produced to eliminate hunger.  That is why we are working to divert high-quality excess food from landfills to the people who need it most, and every contribution of funding, encouragement, connections, and other resources from supporters like you helps us get one step closer to creating a world where food insecurity is a thing of the past!

Links:

• RLC's Website
• RLC's Instagram
• RLC's LinkedIn