Second Harvest Food Bank has been doing food rescue since the beginning of the food bank in 1982.  We started out small, but our food rescue program has grown substantially.  We now rescue food from over 130 food establishments and redistribute it to hunger relief agencies in 11 different counties throughout Northwest Pennsylvania. As a partner with Feeding America, we are now using their innovative MealConnect tool to orchestrate even more food rescues.  This tool is designed to be a convenient, free, and safe way for businesses of any size to reduce wasted food and donate surplus meals throughout our community.  All you have to do is download the app or visit the website, enter your zip code, register and start donating.

So far, MealConnect has helped orchestrate over 6 million pickups for over 9,000 nonprofits in the US, recovering more than 2 billion pounds of food.  What else is great about MealConnect is that it allows community volunteers to help with food rescues.  Second Harvest is using MealConnect to recruit volunteer drivers who can collect and deliver food donations.  This means that community volunteer drivers can collect and deliver food donations.  Community volunteers help bridge the gap between food waste and hunger, supporting our food bank in a new way!

For more information on food rescue or MealConnect, call our Food Rescue Coordinator, Amber Marshall, at (814) 459-3663 extension 130 or email her at  amarshall@nwpafoodbank.org.