Restaurants and grocers throw out good food every night because there’s no driver. The food already exists and the need already exists. The missing piece is two hours and a trunk.
Run a Food-Rescue Route
Claim a weekly route picking up surplus food from a bakery, grocery, or caterer and driving it straight to a shelter or pantry the same day.
What you'll need
- Your car, a few coolers, and clean produce boxes
- A food-rescue group near you — Keep Austin Fed is the model, most cities have one
- The same day and time every week
Pitfalls
- Same day, always. Rescued food doesn't keep, and that's the whole discipline.
- Take the route nobody wants. Sunday nights and early mornings go unclaimed.
- Kids can ride along and carry boxes, which makes this one of the few real jobs they can do.
When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field. — Leviticus 19:9