Equalizing Access to Food

  A Q&A with Leah Lizarondo, CEO and Founder of Food Rescue Hero

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines food insecurity as being "uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, enough food to meet the needs of all their [household] members because they had insufficient money or other resources for food." The most recent USDA report found that there were over 38 million people in the U.S. living with food insecurity in 2020.

Leah Lizarondo is working to address this huge problem with her app, Food Rescue Hero. By connecting food retailers with volunteer drivers to deliver surplus food to nonprofits, Food Rescue Hero is able to make sure that excess food is able to be distributed to those in need.

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Please tell us a little about yourself.

I was born in Manila, Philippines and lived there until my mid-20s. I loved growing up with my extended family. I had 12 cousins who were like my siblings! I worked for Colgate-Palmolive in Brand Management right out of college and moved to New York City then transitioned to my first job in technology working as a Product Manager for a platform that served the consumer goods market.

I first moved to Pittsburgh to go to Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University for my Master’s Degree in Public Policy. I majored in technology policy and urban studies. Then I went back to New York City to work for a consulting firm and boomeranged back to Pittsburgh to raise my family. I’ve been here for 15 years! Time flies.

I love food and cooking. I also love to draw and dance. These balance out the fact that my work is mostly mental work. I think balancing thinking with physical work is so essential.


How did the idea for Food Rescue Hero come about?

I have always wanted to find a way to combine my passions for food, technology and social impact.

After reading a National Resources Defense Council report in 2012 titled “Wasted," the wheels started turning. Mostly to question how such an inefficiency could be happening. My former partner’s family owned a farm in the city and I worked there for a couple of summers and that was when I truly understood the value of food - how much time and resources go into growing what we eat. And then here we are wasting almost half of it. And when we do that, it’s not only the resources used in growing food that gets wasted - the transport, storage and everything else. So much. Food waste is one of the leading causes of greenhouse gas emissions according to Project Drawdown, second only to refrigeration. And when you add the alarming fact that over 10 percent of households are food-insecure, the imperative to do something about it is unquestionable.

In 2015, 412 Food Rescue was launched in Pittsburgh as the initial response to this. We formed this network of food surplus donors, nonprofit distribution partners and the first volunteer drivers. Food Rescue Hero was always in my mind as THE way to scale it.

So in 2016, we launched this platform that works similarly to all the food delivery services we are so familiar with today. About 28% of food waste occurs at the retail level, where businesses encounter many logistical challenges to donating surplus food. My vision was to create a technology platform that could mobilize a distributed, flexible network of volunteer drivers, who could transport fresh, surplus food to organizations serving food-insecure populations immediately.

Are there any surprising trends that you have noticed since launching in 2016?

Food delivery, while growing at a good pace in 2016, truly took off in the pandemic - out of sheer necessity. ⅓ of households had food delivered in the past 18 months and ⅓ more will. This convenience, we have discovered, is now a necessity. In our fast-paced, time-challenged lives, it is a service that gives us some time for things we cannot outsource.

But this convenience is still limited to households with privilege. And ALL households, and I would say more so those who are experiencing poverty and food insecurity, need access to the same. Households led by single parents, who hold multiple jobs, who have no reliable access to public transportation; the elderly, disabled, and immunocompromised. This is such an easy convenience to GIVE so that we equalize at least one more thing. And in doing that, give the same incremental access to time. Such an important currency for quality of life.

The pandemic has affected people in so many ways, from an increased number of people suffering from food insecurity to supply-chain issues. In what ways has it impacted food rescue?

Expanding on the above, the pandemic really exposed the need to rethink our systems of food assistance. We all saw photos of those long lines of cars waiting at food distributions, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. Many people couldn’t even make it to the line, because they lacked transportation, were working frontline jobs during the hours that food pantries and distributions were open, were at home with children doing virtual school, or couldn’t leave the house because they were immunocompromised.

While those of us with more resources have simply been ordering grocery delivery and getting on with our days, people in poverty have had to work very hard and make difficult decisions just to get the basics.

The federal government jumped in with crucial aid expansions that prevented hunger from skyrocketing, as we feared it might, but important inequalities still exist (for instance, the gap between Black and white households experiencing food insecurity got wider. More women had to choose between employment and childcare). We need to think much more innovatively to account for the way people facing food insecurity actually live and the complex barriers they face.

So we took this opportunity to truly push the envelope and introduce Home Delivery - for the first time, our food rescue hero drivers delivered directly to homes in need. This puts our network capabilities on par to those of commercial services and is truly disruptive to how we have been providing services to those in need. I am very proud of my team and all our food rescue heroes for believing in this. I have absolutely no doubt that we are going to look back in history and say this was a moment in time where we ignited massive, impactful change.

Food Rescue Hero has redistributed millions of pounds of food to those in need. If it isn’t available yet in a city, what are some other ways one can help?

Food Rescue Hero is currently in 12 cities (and by the end of 2021, will be in 20 - working toward our goal of 100 cities by 2030.) If Food Rescue Hero is not yet in your city, we can help you bring it there. Over the past year, we’ve created an introductory version of the platform and an educational resource called Food Rescue University in order to make it easier for start-up organizations to rapidly launch and scale food rescue in their cities. That could be you!

What does a typical day look like for you?

I typically wake up around 5:30 a.m. I have my mushroom drink (isn’t everyone trying these nowadays?) plus coffee combo, read the news (this is the only time I allow myself to read the news, because it just gets so distracting) and messages I may have received on social media overnight. Then I reach for my journal and books/apps I use for reflection prompts and write. I meditate - not very long, 10 minutes on weekdays and probably 20 on weekends. Then it’s time to get my three kids ready for school.

This start of the day routine is sacred time for me. I feel a little out of sorts all day without it. It centers me and helps me keep focused on big goals not little things. I’m not an “expert meditator” by any stretch and I would say that the most discernible effect this has had on me is that I am more able to not be reactive to situations. I love it. It offers a sense of peace and a degree of less flappability that I am reaping the benefits of in major ways.

The rest of my day is unfortunately a lot of meetings. I’m trying to get this under control because I need to carve out time to actually DO work.

I pick my youngest up from school around 4 p.m. and then get on with the evening routine of homework, dinner and bedtime.

I do a short yoga practice every night to wind down.

What is one piece of advice that you have found to be most helpful?

Do your best. But be very discriminating in the things you choose to do.

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Image: Laura Petrilla

*Interview edited for length and clarity