Alright, see donation right there.

A little smiley on there, that's for me.

Well, for me to deliver.

You see, there's all kinds of foods, dry goods, milk, eggs, meats, everything.

I can't think of anything that they don't give away.

It's pretty awesome.

Over 40% of all food is wasted, yet 1 in 10 go to bed hungry.

And what happens is, food that is wasted goes into the landfill, where it decomposes and produces methane gas, which is probably the most harmful greenhouse gas that can be produced, and is directly impacting our climate.

Food Rescue US, South Florida is a nonprofit.

We're based in Miami-Dade County and Broward County.

And what we do is we rescue edible, unused, unsold food from area markets, grocers, hotels, restaurants, even large venues like stadiums, and we take it to underserved communities.

The food that we rescue, it's not expired, it's healthy, it's nutritious, and there actually is a federal law, called the Bill Emerson Law, that allows you to donate food, as long as it's in good faith, without any liability.

Now this is gonna be tough today.

I have a tower of beef here.

Where do I begin?

Let's do some of this right now, because I gotta lay down the foundation in the car of all the heavier stuff.

We use a web-based app technology.

It's through our parent headquarters, which is Food Rescue US.

When a food donor reaches out to us, if they have surplus food to donate, we actually post it onto the app what it is that they're donating, when they want it to be picked up.

Lots of information, including what size vehicle to use.

We match it with the closest receiving agency, because we think it's important that a food donor donates within their own community.

There's no warehouses, there's no trucks.

It goes from point A to point B, really within a half hour.

So it looks like my car's kind of small for all this amount of food, but I'm an expert packer.

You're about to find out.

A little nook and cranny here where I can put some more food.

Yep, the more the merrier.

Perfect.

At Food Rescue US, South Florida, we do over 75 rescues in a given week.

Today's rescue was one of our favorites.

It's a new donor, Sprout's Farmers Market, and we actually picked up there and then brought it to the Coconut Grove Crisis Food Pantry, which is an amazing food pantry, and actually grocery bag distribution that goes out into the community of Coconut Grove.

Alright, I'll just bring this whole thing down.

Off we go.

Well, believe it or not, today was a light day, because I usually go up and down six to eight times.

We have a regular rescuer, Ana, who goes every single Tuesday.

She's actually what we call "adopted the rescue."

She shows up around 9:30 every morning, and she loads up her car and drives directly here, which is probably a five-minute drive.

Okay, got that one.

I really had no idea the sheer amount, the large quantity of food that goes to waste if somebody doesn't pick it up and repurpose it and do something else with it.

It may have an expiration day, two days out from today, but you would buy it, and you would eat it in your own home.

And if it doesn't come here, and get distributed to all of these locations, it gets thrown away, which is just impossible for me to understand.

Straight to the freezer.

It's a very simple thing to do.

Connect point A with point B, you feed needy people.

And frankly, I consider that I'm the lucky one to be able to do it, because I have the free time now I'm retired, so I have the free time to be able to do this type of volunteer work and help out, and I'm the lucky one.

There you go.

Thank you.

The way that that that app is designed is super user-friendly, and the quality of the data that's inside of the app that they provide for each one of these pickups and drop-offs is really what makes it work so well.

You got that?

There's a certain type of fulfillment that you get from volunteering that you don't get from anything else.

The joy it gives you to be able to do something for somebody else, and see the happiness in somebody else's face, is something you can't buy.

There's plenty today, right?

I think that with our particular platform, we do encourage volunteers, and we make it easy for them.

As a result, we have over 1,400 people that are registered to be potential volunteers.

Here you go.

When they take it to the receiving agency, they're meeting the people that they're donating the food to, in some cases the actual recipients.

So it really gives a personal kind of experience to being a volunteer, rather than being in a warehouse, sorting or making phone calls.

We've been rescuing and delivering here to the Coconut Grove Crisis Food Pantry now for about three years.

They run an amazing operation.

They not only do a food distribution every Tuesday, they have volunteers to go out and deliver right into the community.

They also make available a walkup window for homeless and houses that are looking for food.

This is our 40th year in operation.

We are located at Christ Episcopal Church in the Little Bahamas area of Coconut Grove, which is the oldest part of Miami.

We had a lot of the early settlers of Miami here in this area, and also the people who helped build Miami.

There is so much wealth in Coconut Grove, yet in parts of Coconut Grove, like Little Bahamas, the wealth is not as apparent.

And we have a lot of families, heritage families that live here, and many of them are our clients and our volunteers.

Every Tuesday we distribute groceries to about 230 households in Coconut Grove.

We have about 60 clients who walk up to our doors, and we distribute a bag of groceries from there, and the rest we deliver.

The people that walk up are our clients who live in the neighborhood, and many of them are unhoused.

They don't have shelter, so that we don't have a place to deliver to them.

We always make sure that every client gets protein, they get fresh produce, they get bakery items, they get breakfast items, and then other items, it depends on what we have in our inventory, but one of the most important parts of our distribution, that's the food that we get from food rescue.

And those donations are some of the favorites for our clients, because they are special things that they might not ordinarily have in their daily diet, or that they can go out and buy.

There are many, many neighborhoods that we never perceived as underserved.

This is a perfect example, Coconut Grove.

We know there's mansions on the water, we see these beautiful houses.

Yet there are these pockets within every community where there are people that are really under the radar, but they exist and they're hungry.

And food is a basic need.

And for them to be able to come here to the Coconut Grove Crisis Food Pantry and get food is really critical.

And there are so many neighborhoods like this throughout Miami-Dade and Broward County that, again, they're under the radar.

Yet if you drive through them or you walk through them, you really see the need, and you see the people that are trying to live respectfully and with some dignity, and that, you know, that makes what we do even more inspiring and rewarding.

I volunteer at the pantry, because this is my community, and I love it, love it so much living in Coconut Grove.

But I noticed I was passing people on the street within the same community, and it affected me.

And I've been working here for a few years now, and now I say hi to them on the streets, and now we're in the same community, and we take care of each other, and it's a very cool symbiotic relationship.

Thanks guys.

We all know what it's like to feel hungry.

It makes me feel really good to know that I can help take away even a drop of suffering or pain from absolutely anyone.

It makes me feel good, because when I started in 2015, we only had about 16 people.

Now we have 225 clients, and they are very appreciative, because, I'm one of the drivers, and when out on show up, they ask, "Where were you?"

So it's really heart-touching to me, and I've been blessed in other ways for helping here.

When I started this, I had really never volunteered before in my life.

And this has turned out to probably be the most rewarding thing I've ever done in my life.

It's very inspiring to meet the people that are donating, to meet the volunteers, to meet the people that are getting the food.

We always do a holiday food distribution with toys, and one of my volunteers dresses up as Santa Claus, and you recognize that this is probably their only opportunity to really be in public, to be with Santa, and to get a toy.

So it's really, it's heartwarming and inspiring, and it's really one of the reasons why I continue to do this.

It's hard work, but it's so rewarding every single day.