Frequently Asked Questions

• Food rescue, also called food recovery, is the practice of collecting fresh, edible food that would have otherwise gone to waste from restaurants, grocers, and other food establishments and distributing it to local social service agencies.
• Food rescue is extremely effective because it simultaneously gets food to those who need it most and reduces food waste, minimizing the amount of toxic emissions from food waste in landfills.

• Food waste is an environmental crisis because of its devastating impact on climate change.
• If food waste as a whole were a country, it would rank third in impact on global warming behind China and the United States.
• Currently, food waste is contributing 8% of total global greenhouse gas emissions.
• This is largely because food that ends up in landfills and decomposes releases carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4), a greenhouse gas that is at least 28 times more potent than CO2.
• Americans generate more food waste than any other country, and nearly 40% of food waste is healthy fresh fruits and vegetables.
• The Food Rescue US model rescues this would-be wasted fresh food and provides it at no cost to recipients, alleviating a major stress and burden in the lives of the food insecure, while simultaneously helping the environment.

• Through the use of our web-based app, Food Rescue US has developed a simple solution to connect the vast amount of healthy, usable surplus food with the critical hunger demand.
• Using our simple and efficient proprietary app, food donors register available fresh food, social service agencies communicate their food needs and details for delivery, and volunteers sign up for a “food rescue.” Sign up to rescue food here.
• Once a match is made with a food donation opportunity and a social service agency, a volunteer rescuer self-schedules to pick up the food from the donor and delivers it directly to the local social service agency serving the community.

Three elements make the Food Rescue US model innovative and unique:

• Our Direct-Transfer Model – Food Rescue US always transfers food with the support of our volunteer food rescuers directly from the food donor to social service agencies serving the food insecure. This enables us to increase access to fresh, nutritious perishables such as fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, and dairy products that aren’t available through traditional food recovery models that utilize warehouses. It also makes our model highly sustainable because it doesn't require a large nonprofit infrastructure and instead empowers communities to use existing resources to serve themselves.
• Our Web-Based App– Our award-winning app is integral to our model and is a large part of what makes Food Rescue US so sustainable and scalable. New volunteers, food donors, and social service agencies use it to start their participation in the Food Rescue US movement as well as to schedule and complete pickups and deliveries. The app also hosts a large portion of our reporting and analytics, including the total number of meals rescued (and the relative pounds of food) as well as more specific information such as a breakdown of the types of food being provided in each community.
• Our Large Volunteer Base – All participants in our work are members of the communities that we serve, including our Site Directors, food donors, food rescuers, and social service agency partners. Local volunteers use their personal vehicles to transport food and engage directly with our partner agencies, allowing them to experience the results of their efforts firsthand and immediately. Our model connects community members whose paths may never have crossed and gives communities the resources they need to serve themselves, increasing awareness and deepening their commitment and sense of belonging to their community.

• Food Rescue US operates in 39 locations in 22 states and the District of Columbia. Within some of our locations, we partner with other 501(c)(3) organizations working to combat hunger and food waste within their communities. They use our proprietary software to facilitate their food recovery work. In the remaining locations, they operate under the Food Rescue US name and are led by a Site Director.
• A full locations list can be viewed here.

Traditional food rescue models primarily rescue boxed and canned foods that are high in carbohydrates because they utilize warehouses and perishables spoil too quickly. Food Rescue US understands the importance of providing fresh, nutritious food, and because we utilize a direct-transfer model, we are able to rescue and provide perishables, including produce, fish/meat, and dairy products, as well as premade meals. The food that we rescue is either excess inventory or does not meet the high cosmetic standards in the food industry. Our Site Directors are always seeking out new sources of fresh, nutritious food and assessing new food donor signups to ensure that we are providing high-quality food and meals.