Boxes of Fresh Produce and Dairy Available This Saturday in the Hill District
412 Food Rescue aims to serve the region’s hardest hit areas with walk-up and drive-up no-contact Farmers to Families food box distributions.
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (July 27, 2020) – On Saturday, August 1, 412 Food Rescue will distribute at least 500 boxes of food at the former Shop ’n Save location in the Hill District. This distribution is open to anyone in need, and each household will receive a box full of fresh dairy and produce items from local donors Schneider’s Dairy and Paragon Foods, available thanks to the USDA’s Farmers to Families Box Program.
The distribution will be held in partnership with the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh (URA) to serve residents of the Hill District and surrounding areas:
Farmers to Families Food Distribution
Saturday, August 1, 2020
10:00 a.m. – Noon
Hill District
1850 Centre Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
“Our strategy at 412 Food Rescue has always been to get food to where people already are. During COVID-19, we’re connecting the USDA’s Farmers to Families food boxes with our region’s highest need communities,” says Senior Program Director Jen England. The Hill District location, provided by the URA, is accessible by foot, bike, car, and public transit (Port Authority bus routes 81, 82, and 83).
“As the URA continues to work with the community to attract a new grocery store operator for the Centre Avenue space where this distribution will be held, organizations like 412 Food Rescue are helping to meet the needs of families right now,” says Diamonte Walker, Deputy Executive Director of the URA. “I am happy to see the space continue to be used for these kinds of innovative solutions until such time a permanent fresh food source can be brought back to the neighborhood.”
Mass distributions like this, made possible by partners including the American Red Cross, which provides volunteers and logistics assistance, Salvation Army, RIDC and the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, are just one way 412 Food Rescue has pivoted its strategies to help people access food in light of COVID-19.
Since March, the nonprofit organization has welcomed more than 2,800 new volunteers on its Food Rescue Hero app, distributed over 24,000 meals to bus stops in the City of Pittsburgh and Sto-Rox School District, started a Home Delivery program and distributed food boxes to more than 1,500 households in Pittsburgh and Beaver County, and launched Community Takeout to financially support restaurants and unemployed service workers while feeding people in need.
Those interested in volunteering for the event can sign up here.
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About 412 Food Rescue: Driven by the belief that good food belongs to people, not landfills, 412 Food Rescue launched in March 2015 to redirect healthy food from the waste stream to nonprofits that serve food insecure populations. In the United States, 40% of food produced is wasted while 1 in 9 people goes hungry. Focusing on the logistics challenges of retail food recovery, 412 Food Rescue addresses both problems through technology-coordinated, community-powered networks. The only organization in Allegheny County focused on food that would otherwise be discarded, 412 Food Rescue develops innovative solutions to eradicate food waste in the region and is now expanding its model to cities around the country. To date, 412 Food Rescue has redirected over 11 million pounds of perfectly good food from going to landfills. The organization works with 800 food retailers, 600 nonprofit partners and over 9,000 volunteer drivers in the Pittsburgh area alone. More info: https://412foodrescue.org
