Skip to Main
Jack's Journal

Jack’s Journal: Food Rescue

9&10 Logo

A proactive approach to combating food waste: that’s the mission of one Northern Michigan organization.

And with a name like Food Rescue, you can probably already guess what it is they do.

Sometimes the simplest ideas turn out to be the best. In 2008 the idea was hatched: collect good food that was going to waste and give it to folks who could use it.  Food Rescue was born, and oh has it grown.

“These are stores, restaurants and farms. We pick up five days a week, on average 75 stores.  We pick up and deliver on the same day.  The goal is to start with an empty truck and end with an empty truck,” Taylor Moore, Food Rescue said.

That’s over 168 entities that supply Food Rescue.  This is all perishable stuff, delivered to agencies and food pantries. When the Food Rescue truck pulls up, it’s a good day!

“Us coming in with 35 pounds of bananas is great. We couldn’t do it without the pantries.  They are the ones rescuing the food. At the end, they are the ones giving it out,” Moore said.

Three box trucks, a van and a pickup truck cover the five country region collecting 5,000 pounds on average a day.

Drivers are employed but volunteers are always needed. They stop at 48 sites each day. It’s a well-orchestrated effort with time being of the essence.  Every day brings happy surprises.  Like the one day one store had eight pallets of food that was about to go to waste. That day 2,500 pounds of produce from that one store didn’t go stale, but to people who needed it.

“We give people an opportunity to do the right thing.  The thing they want to do. Which is not waste food.  Get it out to someone who needs it.  Picking up the food brings a smile to the day,” Moore said.

And it got its start by someone saying, hey what if?

Food Rescue is a common sense effort, a lot of but it’s good people helping good people.

Local Trending News