Saving Grace Rescues and Redistributes 1.3M Pounds of Food
Despite challenges from the pandemic, Saving Grace Perishable Food Rescue (savinggracefoodrescue.org) rescued and redistributed over 1.3 million pounds of healthy perishable food to feed the hungry in 2020. This is a 25% increase over the previous year’s total.
Using a fleet of refrigerated trucks and professional drivers/food handlers, Saving Grace picks up excess nutritious food from a network of food donors including grocery stores, caterers, event venues, schools, wholesalers and restaurants. The produce, dairy products, meats, prepared and prepackaged meals, grain products, and other healthy foods are delivered the same day, free of charge, to 40 nonprofit partner agencies for use by their clients.
As normal food pickups fluctuated early in the pandemic due to business closures and food supply disruptions, Saving Grace offered its unique logistics and distribution system to help other organizations with food delivery. As a result, Saving Grace is partnering with Catholic Charities to transport USDA Farmers to Families food boxes beyond what that agency can use for its pantries to other nonprofit organizations. During the summer, Saving Grace worked with the Food Bank of the Heartland and Millard Public Schools to transport food boxes from Millard South High School to nine other schools for distribution to those in need. Additionally, Saving Grace provided transportation to connect produce from community gardens with local nonprofits.
Since operations began in October 2013, Saving Grace Perishable Food Rescue has rescued 5,367,709 pounds of perishable food. This translates to 2,680 tons of food that has been kept out of the landfills. To learn more, visit savinggracefoodrescue.org. Call (402) 215- 6718 to reach the office or (402) 913-6776 if you are a business or nonprofit interested in working with Saving Grace.