Billie Eilish’s Team Partners with 412 Food Rescue to Donate Surplus Plant-Based Meals in Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (February 8, 2022) — Ahead of singer/songwriter Billie Eilish’s concert at PPG Paints Arena tonight, her mother, Maggie Baird, donated surplus vegan meals leftover from the crew’s meals to Pittsburghers in need via 412 Food Rescue.
Fighting food insecurity and climate change isn’t new to the artist’s family. Baird founded Support + Feed in 2020, a nonprofit which aims to combat food insecurity and climate change by advocating for a global shift to an equitable, plant-based food system. Both Eilish and Baird eat plant-based and believe that everyone deserves access to healthy, vegetable-forward meals.
Today’s donation was made up of surplus crew meals from Eilish’s rehearsal, provided by local vegan restaurant Onion Maiden of Allentown. 412 Food Rescue’s team picked up the meals from the crew’s hotel and delivered them to Outreached Arms, an organization that serves food insecure people in downtown Pittsburgh, just a few streets away from the hotel.
412 Food Rescue CEO and co-founder Leah Lizarondo was present for today’s special food rescue. “We are so grateful for the work that Maggie and Billie are doing to impact not only food insecurity but also climate change. Preventing food waste and eating more plant-based meals are two things we all can do everyday. The Food Rescue Hero app makes it easy for people to take this action every day, everywhere.”
To date, 412 Food Rescue has redistributed 21,293,707 pounds of food in the Pittsburgh area that otherwise would have been sent to landfills and contributed to harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Powered by the Food Rescue Hero® app and 16,000 Pittsburgh area volunteers, that food has become 17 million meals and mitigated 11.5 million pounds of CO2 emissions. In the 16 cities where the Food Rescue Hero app is used, over 80 million pounds of good food has been rescued.
Lizarondo received the meals directly from Baird. "I’m so excited to meet Leah and learn about 412 Food Rescue,” she said. “Support + Feed is an organization we started in L.A. We’re now in Philly, D.C., and NYC and we’re coming to all the cities on Billie’s tour as well to provide nourishing, plant-based meals to community organizations in food apartheids. We’re thrilled to provide plant-based food from local community restaurants to 412 Food Rescue and the people they serve, and fight the climate crisis together."
On the road, Billie Eilish encourages “Happier Than Ever” concert goers to take action against the climate crisis and to create a more just food system. In Pittsburgh, you can take action today by downloading the 412 Food Rescue app to begin volunteering.
###
About 412 Food Rescue: Driven by the belief that good food belongs to people, not landfills, 412 Food Rescue launched in Pittsburgh, PA in March 2015 to redirect healthy food from the waste stream to households and nonprofits that serve people experiencing food insecurity. In the United States, as much as 40 percent of food produced is wasted while 1 in 8 people go hungry. The only organization in the Greater Pittsburgh Region focused on food that would otherwise be discarded, 412 Food Rescue addresses both hunger and food waste by mobilizing volunteers to bring surplus food from retail locations to nonprofits serving people in need. The growing team of 16,000+ volunteer drivers, mobilized by the Food Rescue Hero® technology platform, has redirected more than 21 million pounds of food in western Pennsylvania, equating to 17 million meals and mitigating 11.5 million pounds of CO2 emissions in the process. Locally, the organization works with 800 food retailers and 600 nonprofit partners.
