Food rescue increasing NKY work

Last Mile Food Rescue, a volunteer driven logistics link that rescues high quality food throughout Greater Cincinnati, is rescuing food for a growing number of Northern Kentucky nonprofit partner agencies.

Last Mile recently began picking-up and delivering food for Be Concerned, Northern Kentucky’s largest pantry and free food program. In the first week of adding the Be Concerned rescues, Last Mile’s Food Rescue Heroes completed nine additional rescues to pick-up and deliver 1,443 pounds of additional food.

These weekly Northern Kentucky food rescues are in addition to the many already being delivered to Northern Kentucky agencies as diverse as Brighton Center, Life Learning Center and St. Bernard Food Pantry. The growing effort is resulting in hundreds of thousands of pounds of food rescued by Last Mile volunteers for Kentucky families each year. 

With a growing number of food donors and agency partners in Northern Kentucky, Last Mile needs more volunteers to download the app from the Apple Store or Google Play and volunteer to transport the food.

“Our Food Rescue Heroes are the engine behind everything we do to solve the food insecurity problem and keep unused food out of our landfills,” said Julie Shifman, executive director of Last Mile Food Rescue. “Our Uber-like technology makes it simple for a volunteer with a car to take an hour or less of time to have a significant impact.”

Last Mile Food Rescue delivers food regularly to more than 80 nonprofit partners throughout Greater Cincinnati including pantries, drop-in centers, day cares, senior centers and pop-up pantries in low income neighborhoods. All rescues are posted on a simple volunteer-facing app that allows drivers to pick up a rescue and follow step-by-step directions from pick up to drop off.

To learn more about Last Mile or get involved, visit www.lastmilefood.org.