Food Security United States Project #58211

Feed People, Not Landfills with RLC

by Rescuing Leftover Cuisine, Inc.

Project Report | Aug 17, 2023
10 Years and 12 Million Pounds!

By Robert Lee | CEO & Co-founder

The Door, Nonprofit Recipient in NYC

We've had a busy, successful summer!

On May 18th, Rescuing Leftover Cuisine (RLC) celebrated its Ten-Year Anniversary Gala in style at the Mezzanine in the Financial District in Manhattan, where we raised over $250,000 to combat both food insecurity and wasted food. (RLC officially "turned 10" on July 3, 2023.) More recently, Robert Lee, our CEO, was selected to participate in the Obama Foundation's Leader's USA cohort for 2023 in the same month that we opened our Los Angeles branch. Finally, as of August 14th, RLC surpassed the 2 million pound mark for 2023--bringing our all-time total to over 12 million pounds of food rescued. With the help of supporters, partners, and/or Rescuers like you, RLC has provided over 10.1 million meals to those who need it most.

12 million pounds of food is difficult to put into perspective. Think of it this way:

12 million pounds of food could completely fill up 5 Olympic swimming pools.
It's the weight equivalent of 1,000 adult African elephants.
12 million pounds of food could feed almost 78 Americans for their entire lifetimes, from birth to death.
It could occupy an entire story of the Empire State Building, floor to ceiling.
It requires almost 28 million pounds of greenhouse gas gas emissions to produce, harvest, and transport 12 million pounds of food--enough to fill over 2,470 hot air balloons! By diverting food from landfills, RLC justifies the environmental cost of food production and transportation while preventing further emissions from landfills.

RLC is well on its way to achieving our goal of rescuing 4 million pounds (which translates to over 3.3 milllion meals' worth) of food in 2023, but we can't do it without the support of our community of donors and Rescuers. Despite our accomplishments these past few months, June thru August is historically a very slow time for RLC in terms of Food Donations and development. Please consider making a small summertime gift donation, or just donating your time as a Rescuer!

Here's to a plentiful (and cool!) autumn at RLC. Let's finish 2023 with a bang!

Union Gospel Mission, Nonprofit Recipient, Dallas

Inner Voice, Nonprofit Recipient in Chicago

Andra C., Volunteer Lead Rescuer

Students from Berkeley Carroll help with a Rescue!

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