(upbeat music)
- Leah, you are just an incredible entrepreneur.
You founded a company that embraces technology to connect...
always correct me if I'm wrong,
leftover perfectly good food,
from places like grocery stores and restaurants,
with the communities and the shelters and the places
that need food, food pantries
that distribute food to those who need it.
Can you just really walk us through
how did you realize that
this need existed in your community?
And how did you come up with this idea to solve it?
- Yeah, I'd be more than happy to,
I think all of us are aware that we waste food
in some way. When we were kids,
our parents would tell us to finish our plates.
We see, we have friends who work in restaurants,
and they complain about how the last shift is awful,
because they have to throw out all this bread.
And I think one of the things that we don't know, though,
is the magnitude of this problem.
In 2012, the National Resources Defense Council
released a report called Wasted
and it was the first time that I saw that
actually, we're wasting almost half our food supply.
And that was mind-boggling to me
just seeing that number almost half,
especially knowing that on the other side,
so many of us especially now, are food insecure.
And so 412 Food Rescue,
what we did was we set out to solve this problem
by connecting those who have food,
surplus food that they definitely want to give away
to those who need it.
Which is all of the food pantries, all of the shelters,
the homes even of people who are food insecure.
- So you saw this NRDC Report
and how I mean, how did that sort of spur your innovation?
Because I mean, really, I mean,
I read lots of reports tonight, I haven't come up with a way
to solve all the world's problems.
But you really wanted to tackle this specifically.
What is it about food insecurity, and food waste,
that really mean something to you personally?
- Yeah, I mean, it happened quite slowly,
I had this friend who worked at a bakery,
and she was sharing the story
of how at the end of the day,
she would take all of the bread
and walk to the church that's on her way home,
and just donate that bread.
And they were extremely thankful for it
and asked her if you could do it every day,
that would be fantastic.
And then friends who just take it upon themselves
to go to the grocery store that they frequent,
and ask, you know, what do you do with all the extra food?
And can I take it to the shelter?
And most of the time, you know, the staff would say yes,
so it's taking all of these little instances
and thinking, you know, what, if you know,
all of us do the same thing?
And meaning all of us, you know,
I know, all of us want to do something,
and we just don't know what to do.
So what if, you know, Elizabeth,
I tell you that the restaurant right next to your home,
has three bags of sandwiches leftover every day,
and can you just take it to a shelter
that's really only half a mile?
You'll probably say yes,
but you just didn't know that existed.
We just have to let people know
that this opportunity exists.
And that's what we set out to do.
And that's what that's all that we're doing.
We're connecting everyone with food,
with food with those who need it.
And those who can bring it from one place to the other.
Food is the number 1 material in landfills. The number 1.
And it's you know, it's actually the second cause
the second largest cause of greenhouse gas emissions.
So when we are preventing food from being being wasted,
we not only save the resources, that went into producing it,
which is 20% of all the water and the land that is used,
it goes into goes into producing food
that we will never eat.
So we're not only preserving that,
but on the end of it,
you know, we're preventing food from going
into landfill where it's causing greenhouse gas emissions.
So it's not just hunger that it's solving.
It's helping us alleviate climate change.
- What's interesting too is your volunteers
come from all walks of life,
all socioeconomic groups, crosses all ages
but you've really, I think, tapped into a desire
that young people have
to make a difference in today's world.
And especially because you are
also tackling climate change,
not just food insecurity and food waste.
Can you give advice to all the people
that are watching this that want to be a part of change
in their communities,
how they can begin to identify solutions
to the problems that they're seeing
in their real, everyday lives?
- Yes, so one of the first reactions
that I always get when I talk to people about
what 412 Food Rescue does is,
oh my goodness, I'm so glad someone's doing that.
I've thought of that. And that happens all the time.
And so they asked me, Why did you do it?
Because someone had to do it,
because we've all thought of it.
And so I think my biggest piece of advice is,
when you think of something, just don't be afraid.
Just do it. And don't be you know,
don't set such a high goal right away.
Maybe the most important thing is that first step
that will take you to the next and the next.
And, you know, so basically, it's, you have good ideas.
We all have good ideas, but most of the time,
we're afraid to try so let's just try.