Last Mile Food Rescue
1775 Mentor Avenue, Suite 403
Cincinnati, OH 45212
Good Food Belongs to People Not Landfills
Last Mile addresses the disconnect between food waste, hunger and environmental sustainability by rescuing food about to go to landfills and directly distributing to organizations that serve communities in need. By using technology, volunteers are able to redirect fresh, healthy, viable food directly to those who are food insecure.
The lowest use of edible food is landfill with 40% of perishable food thrown away each yea . This not only fills up landfill but also produces the second leading cause of greenhouse gases. And yet many neighbors are food insecure. The highest use of that perishable food is to feed those neighbors. Why does the food get thrown away? Because it's just so much easier for a food purveyor to throw it away than to figure out how to get that food the "last mile" (hence our name) to use it to feed people. Until we opened, there simply hadn't been a systematic, reliable and sustainable way to rescue this food. But now, our Food Donors buy into the mission and receive our training for how to rescue food (what and where) so that the rescue is as easy as it is to throw the food away.
Last Mile uses the power of app technology and volunteers to execute food rescues in Greater Cincinnati. We work with institutional food retailers - our "Food Donors" - to rescue good food that would otherwise go to waste. These donors do not have the operational resources to consistently and quickly redirect food to community organizations and instead they throw it out. Our volunteer drivers ("Food Rescue Heroes") pick up food directly from the food donor and deliver immediately to the site of distribution. We are the only organization in Greater Cincinnati with point-to- point delivery so we can scale large enough to rescue the many millions of pounds of available food because we don't need storage or refrigeration. We deliver to soup kitchens, pantries, shelters, pop up distribution sites, schools, day cares, and senior centers. Our food allows them to save money in their food budget and serve higher quality food than they can usually afford to buy or receive from a food bank.
:
http://www.lastmilefood.org Amount: $30,000
Date: June 2021
