108 Alyssa and Greg of 412 Food Rescue

Perfectly good food gets thrown away every day, while neighbors a few miles away worry about their next meal. That disconnect is exactly what 412 Food Rescue is built to solve. We're joined by Alyssa Cholodofsky, CEO of 412 Food Rescue, and Greg Austin, Director of Distribution Initiatives, to break down how a smart, volunteer-powered system moves surplus food quickly and safely across Pittsburgh. 
 
We talk through the Food Rescue Hero app, the “matchmaking” technology that alerts volunteers to pickups from grocery stores, restaurants, bakeries, and more, then routes those donations straight to nonprofit partners. Alyssa explains the model, how food safety and liability concerns are addressed, and a software platform now used in cities across the country. Greg shares what it means to cook at the Good Food Project kitchen with an abundance mindset, creating ready-to-heat meals from whatever arrives while keeping dignity, nutrition, and cultural needs front and center. 
 
Then we take a fun turn with wine expert Catherine Montest... Swifties are giving white wine a boost, and Sancerre is suddenly hot. We cover Sancerre notes and flavor, what to pair it with, and why this trend matters for the broader wine market. 

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Transcript

Doug 0:00

Welcome to The Pittsburgh Dish. I'm your host, Doug Heilman. What happens when you pair technology and a network of volunteers to rescue perfectly good food from going to waste? We learn all about the good work of 412 Food Rescue. And later in the show, how are Swifties helping the white wine industry? Catherine Montest shares the trend of Sansaire. All that ahead, stay tuned. The Pittsburgh Dish is supported by Chef Alekka. Want to perfect your cake piping, sharpen your knife skills, or simply create a batch of pasta from scratch? Visit her website at chefalekka.com to see upcoming classes or book your own personal culinary experience. Now, on to the show.

Meet 412 Food Rescue Leaders

Doug 0:56

Thank you both so much for coming over and for being on the show. Would you introduce yourselves to our listeners and what you have going on in the world of food? And Alyssa, can we start with you?

Alyssa 1:09

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks so much for having us here. I'm Alyssa Cholodofsky. I'm the CEO of 412 Food Rescue. And it's in our name, food. So we're always doing food and um getting good surplus food from one place to another very quickly, answering two um urgent needs. One is the amount of food that's uh wasted and still good, and then the number of people who are unfortunately experiencing food insecurity.

Doug 1:38

Yes. And Greg, how about you? What's your role at uh the organization?

Greg 1:43

Thanks so much. Yeah, thanks you for having us, Doug. Um my name is Greg Austin. I'm the director of distribution initiatives at 412 Food Rescue. I my background is in hospitality and cooking, um, hospitality management and uh chef work. So it's been a really interesting kind of about face for me to do this work. I learned a lot of things early on with uh I'm still working with food, but it's uh almost um the reverse of how I mentally approach it.

Doug 2:15

You used to think about it, yeah.

Greg 2:17

We're looking at depth of impact through what we can do with that food. Like how can we manipulate that food to create the most impact? Um we look for the meals, we're looking at getting nutrition at like very specific intervention points for people who are in food deserts, for people who are in different at-risk positions in their life, right? So we're looking at like new single mothers, we're looking at mostly like the Medicaid, like the Medicaid uh long-term services, right? So we're focused on that. We're focused on how it's the only place in the organization that we store food. Okay. Everything else is moving very quickly.

Doug 2:55

This is at the Good Food Project in Millvale. And so this is where you are preparing, say, a ready-to-heat meal. That's correct. Or you also have volunteers that come in and help bag groceries for for like fresh produce or ready to make food.

Greg 3:10

And even prepare the meals. We have the volunteers help us do that as well. More opportunities for people. It's so fun.

Doug 3:15

I love it. And really trying to look for, I imagine, you know, the deepest impact. It's such a complex organization and there's so many places in need. So you're trying to probably coordinate where can we have the most important thing?

Greg 3:29

Where can we do the most? What's the most bang for our buck? Right. Just because it is, you know, we're looking in comparison to that five million pounds. So it's we have a limited amount in comparison to that. What do we do with that?

Doug 3:40

And Alyssa, you know, getting back to the organization overall, it's been going for over 10 years now, correct? 2015.

Alyssa 3:47

Yes. Yeah. So last year we celebrated our 10-year anniversary, a decade of um really um amazing impact for a small organization like us. And we're looking forward to um what we're working on next.

Food Rescue Hero App Explained

Alyssa 4:02

We really um saw that there was a problem in the amount of surplus food that was still good and how to get it quickly to people. So realizing that the problem isn't that there isn't enough food, plenty of food to go around. It's the logistics of it. How do you get food, especially produce, perishable food, breads, things like that quickly from point A to point B? And when you're thinking about that point B, it's people in communities who are coming to nonprofit organizations already. They may be coming for a housing need or education need. So we're able to pull up with our truck or have one of our volunteers drop off food so those individuals can take that with them. So, really solving a lot of issues, but also providing a great opportunity for people to get involved in our work. We can't do what we do without volunteers. And so we have the Food Rescue Hero app that we actually developed here in Pittsburgh. Yes. And um, it's a people can download it on the App Store and get out their quick registration and then see what food is available near them and where it needs to go leads you all through that process. And it's very quick, again, because it is usually fresh food or could be something from a bakery or even prepared food from a convenience store. Oh, okay.

Doug 5:24

I I love the app. And let's just fill in the the newcomer. The Food Rescue Hero. Am I saying that right? Yes, Food Reserve. Food rescue hero app. Uh it's been around for a while, as you said, developed here. It's being used in other cities. Is that right?

Alyssa 5:38

Yes, yeah. So that's really the uh one of our exciting things about our organization. As you said, we have a lot of um things going on, and uh not just here in Pittsburgh, but we have 24 other cities um and regions using our Food Rescue Hero software platform: Cleveland, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Atlanta, even um in California, Vancouver's are one of our uh international places. Yeah. Cities. Yes, yes.

Doug 6:08

And it all started in Pittsburgh. Yes. Incredible. And we should say for listeners, this is kind of like the matchmaking app. You have partners out there, whether it's a big or small grocery store, a mom and pop store, as you said, maybe a convenience store and restaurants that have surplus food. And they're alerting you, it goes on the app as a rescue, and then the volunteers can find it and they can do a rescue once, or they could go back and rescue many times. Is that right?

Alyssa 6:36

Yeah, people can pick up a regular rescue so they know Monday at 10, they're gonna pick up from you know, uh food donor and then get it right to a nonprofit. So it's also really a great way to build relationships in community. So we say it's people-powered technology. I love it. Um, so you have the beauty of the app, but also the beauty of talking to people. So when you get to the grocery store or restaurant, you're, you know, working with the person there to put the food in your car or whatever that might be. Yeah. And then at the nonprofit partner, there's often volunteers there as well to help get the food out. Yeah. It's a really special experience.

Greg 7:14

Can I just say I love the idea of logistics as matchmaking? That's so romantic.

Ready To Heat Meals Origin Story

Doug 7:22

Greg, how long have you been doing how long has the organization been doing the ready-to-eat meals? What's the history around that?

Greg 7:31

Six or seven years. Well, about seven years. I've been with the organization for about six years. So let's say seven. It started as uh an entry to a competition, I believe the Uprise competition, and it was like the second runner-up. Oh my! For that as a concept. Um I think that the project really started as a way to be like an internal partner, like an internal version for us to test how our partnerships could go. Yeah. Because again, it's all about these relationships, right? And so we get to use the app, receive you know, donations, rescues from volunteers. We're like experiencing the whole thing in real time and able to report back on how that went, what's different, what's buggy, what's good. And at the same time, again, like explore these ways of creating depth of impact, right?

Doug 8:22

So I, you know, I'm just sort of thinking to uh beyond uh what we're talking about so far with rescuing food and getting it to the people that need it. I imagine that this is it's really an incredible environmental impact as well, right? We don't want that food going into a landfill. You know, good thing for the earth, not just good for people. Correct.

Alyssa 8:44

Absolutely. Um, I think when we started this work, 40% of food was heading into the waste stream.

Doug 8:51

Wow.

Alyssa 8:51

Which when you think about all the resources that go into the production of food, whether it's the farmer, the transportation, the putting it on grocery shelves, and then that it would not get into people's homes, uh, which is the best intended use. Right. Um, and then not just that, but go to the waste stream where it contributes to uh climate change. So yeah, we're tackling a lot of issues and things um with this. And uh so in that way, it's really exciting because a lot of people come to our work, you know, the food insecurity piece of it is what they, you know, really want to see make change. And then other people come to our work because they they don't want to see the impact on the environment. Yes. So having all of those pieces of our mission kind of intertwine makes a big difference uh overall, and it's pretty special.

Doug 9:42

I am thinking about maybe there's a restaurant or a potential partner out there and they've never known about you for some reason or contacted you. How do you make that partnership connection happen?

Alyssa 9:55

A lot of it is word of mouth. Um, and Greg can uh chime in here as well. Um, we try to get it out to restaurants, grocery stores, when new places open, we try to approach them um pretty quickly to talk about our work. We make it as easy as possible because restaurants, grocery stores, they have a lot going on. They're so busy already. So if we can ensure them that if they're putting something out on a loading dock or by their you know back door to be picked up, that it gets picked up and that it goes where um it's it's intended to go. Um, and then a lot of people are concerned around food safety. Yeah. So there is federal policy. Um, I think it's the Bill Emerson. Bill Emerson, yeah, Goods American Act. So it makes sure that people feel safe donating food. And that was one of the original barriers. And and I understand that from anyone's point of view. Sure. Um, but it um it really helps assure people that food is getting where it needs to go quickly. It's not sitting out somewhere. And that's also nice about our software is we have um we can help our volunteers so nobody's getting lost out there looking for something. And then we know exactly when something is picked up and when it's delivered. So we know that it still maintains that food uh safety. There's so much tech behind all of it.

Greg 11:18

Yeah, to piggyback on what Alyssa just said, um, it's a really clever and strong model. And I think, you know, in my experience, our staff comes from a food background, and that's a big part of it. So, like to go back to your original question with the relationships, how do we build them? Some of us come with them built in. Like I knew a bunch of representatives, um, sales reps and and other folks at Cisco or Unify or anywhere. So we come knowing the food system a little bit, that's like people who see the beauty in this model see it because they understand the food system, at least some to some extent. And then we can explore from there if I have if I know that this is the layer of like broadline distributors that we could be working with, then I have my call list right there.

Doug 12:05

Yes. How interesting. I mean, uh, this is the whole world I don't know about. I presume I can't give you food, but are there uh some avenues you direct the the household person who wants to maybe donate?

Alyssa 12:18

Um, I think the best thing that I can advise for people would be composting at their homes, you know. Um and that's pretty easy to do even these days. If you don't have a big backyard or something like that, there's lots of tools that are available um to do home composting um if people are concerned about food waste. But if you are at a business um and say you have a gathering, a holiday party or uh even another event that you might be catering. So we are happy to work with the caterers of those events um to figure out how you know how they would put food, you know, it's not food that's been served, you know, it's been kept at temperature. So there are a lot of guidelines around that. But our staff is really adept at answering questions. We have um people available during the workday to answer any questions. If uh somebody has an ad hoc rescue, they maybe just over-ordered some ingredient and now they want to see it go out. Right. And that's one of the great things about the Good Food Project, too, is we often have larger quantities of specific items that we can't take to one of our nonprofit partners. They simply can't. Um they don't have the capacity of it. Um, and one of the best ways to extend the life of food is freezing it. So when we make the meals and we freeze them, um it just gives it a whole other life. Yeah.

Greg 13:41

Totally. And I think, you know, we work with 400 plus nonprofit partners. My goodness. I believe that I've heard this statistic. I don't have the receipts, but Pittsburgh has more nonprofits per capita. So if people are looking to donate on an individual basis, I guarantee there's a nonprofit near them. Yeah.

Doug 13:59

Are there also um is there a map of fridges that folks can donate food into? I think I saw that on the site. Yeah. So that's also sort of uh Yeah, that's a good point. The free fridges, yeah. Okay. Greg, you have me thinking about numbers when when you just mentioned, I'd love to ask some more if you have the numbers. If not, it's not a test. Sometimes, sometimes we have the numbers. I I was wondering just generally, how many

Small Team Big Footprint Nationwide

Doug 14:24

folks outside of the volunteers, how many folks are at 412 Food Rescue doing all of these wonderful things? Yeah, we have. What is our current though?

Alyssa 14:33

You would never. Wow. Yeah, yeah. So, and our team is pretty um interesting as well because we have uh fleet operators, people who are driving our trucks, and then we have software engineers, the people who are working on the technology. And um, and our idea too is that we are an incubator of the technology. So because we do the 412 food rescue operations here in Pittsburgh, it can inform the Food Rescue Hero software development. And at the same time, all of our partners out in these other cities and locations are testing things as well. And so they can bring that to our Food Rescue Hero team, the product team, and they can, you know, then try it out here in Pittsburgh and inform the work. So it's really building that partnership that's important um and makes our work unique as well.

Doug 15:28

Incredible. I I think the one thing we also haven't talked about is you are a nonprofit. If folks want to donate not just food, do you have some great partners out there or you're looking for financial partners? Probably all the time. Always.

Alyssa 15:42

Yeah, whenever we're asked what do we need, it's food and money. Money.

Doug 15:47

Of course. Of course.

Alyssa 15:49

Yes, yes. And we we've been really fortunate um to have great support from companies. Giant Eagle was an early um company that came in um really seeing the benefit of our work. Gordon Food Service has been an amazing partner to us, Trader Joe's, many others. Wow. And then at the same time, um, we have our nonprofits who are great with our, you know, accepting the food, working with us and our team. So it's really been a special uh organization in that way.

Doug 16:22

I do want to ask another question, and this is going back a couple years. There was an education arm called Cooking Matters, and that's how I got involved. I taught a couple of the Cooking Matters classes, and I did see it on your website. So, where does that fall in the hood of uh the organization? Where does education fall in the hood of the organization now?

Greg 16:43

Somewhere in in my world. Oh yeah. So we and we were very involved with cooking matters. We had to pivot with the pandemic. We couldn't do in-person. Right. That was it. Yeah. So we did, we ended up pivoting towards kind of evergreen video content. Yes. And we put that out on the website and then pared down what we were doing and really focused on just meal production for the last couple of years. Um, we're starting to get back into that space. Where I'm I'm also I think that this is my personal, this is I don't necessarily speak for the organization when I say this, but I I speak for myself. Like I don't there's something disparaging about education in that space. I think people have relationships to food, and it's not my place to teach them food. It's I think our place to like listen and have conversation around food. And so we've been retooling what cooking, quote unquote, education looks like and trying to come back to the space um a little more uh intentionally and a little more aware.

Doug 17:44

Got you. I bring up cooking matters. The program was a six-week in-person class, you know, teaching you how to cook. So I could see how the pandemic put a wrench into those things and the video content is evergreen. It's there for the folks that want to learn. And really, you know, the crux of this class was using healthy ingredients that are maybe at a lower cost. And also there was a component of showing you how to, you know, think about shopping at a grocery store and stretching your dollar. But uh, I do think that cooking and you know, even our our cultural or family uh traditions, it's so personal, right? Totally. Yeah.

Alyssa 18:20

Hi, this is Alyssa from 412 Food Rescue.

Greg 18:24

And this is Greg from 412 Food Rescue. And you're listening to The Pittsburgh Dish.

Doug 18:30

Alyssa, the way we all met was at one of the more

NFL Draft Rescues And Pop Up Dinner

Doug 18:34

recent events at the food hub in Millvale. Uh, can we talk about the meal that we had after the draft?

Alyssa 18:40

Yeah, sure. That was uh what a great afternoon that was. And I appreciate um you coming. Uh Doug, it was wonderful to meet you there. So um we were very involved in rescuing food during the NFL draft, and um, that was an incredible um way to showcase the work that Food 412 Food Rescue does every day. Yeah. So it gave us um a new audience to talk to some restaurants we hadn't uh worked with before, but also to demonstrate the way that we are able to scale up and scale down. We did nobody knew what would be available at the end of the draft. Right. Um, we talked to some of our other cities that had held the NFL draft, and so we knew we could expect a lot of bottled water, maybe some things from catering. And then we started to think about um, okay, you know, during the highlights of the draft, we're gonna have a lot of our team members out and our volunteers rescuing the food, demonstrating our work. But what better way to demonstrate what we do is to showcase how food that is still good, surplus food, can be prepared. And um, luckily, Greg is a chef as well. And um, so was able to really think about uh what kind of food might we receive, how to how to put that together into a delicious meal, bring together um some of our uh partners, both food donors and some of our volunteers, and um Jamilka, Borgis, and um Diane from Lilith, which was amazing to have them there as well. And then Greg was really the brains behind the meal and also the hands behind it, right? Thanks. So I'll let you talk about that.

Doug 20:27

First off, Greg, it was great. Multi-course. Thank you. Like, you know, we didn't just have like one dish, we had like five different dishes throughout the night and a dessert to go. I have jam somewhere in my cupboard. Right. Tell me a little bit more about how you're thinking because you don't know what you're gonna get.

Greg 20:44

Yeah, luckily for that dinner I had had six years of practice of working with whatever comes. So yeah, a big part of the model for me in the in the prep kitchen is we want to showcase that there's plenty of food, right? It's about abundance and and working from an abundance mindset. So we don't purchase anything ever.

Doug 21:06

That's not the baseline we're gonna do. Oh, I I would think maybe oh, we have some rice or we have a pasta just as a base. You have nothing.

Alyssa 21:16

Oh goodness, and butter, I think, too, right? Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah.

Greg 21:20

Everything we we get we get we have access to everything at some point in the timeline. Uh and in the meantime, we work with substitution, we we use our creativity in that way. So really, like earlier I was talking about the shift in mindset that it took. Um I'm really in service to the food and the community. Um and it's a really beautiful thing, you know. Um I think two things I want to say about this. First, I when I came to it, my con my conception of being a chef was almost like bending the food to my will. Right. You know your expression. Exactly. And that's I think that's really common uh in a lot of spaces. In a culture in a lot of spaces. culture. Um and this work when I saw what was possible with the rescue stream, I really had to like shift my perspective. And it was a huge it was a huge learning opportunity. And it has changed my life, you know.

Doug 22:15

I'm just going to interject here too. I have to say you're living almost like the chopped or Iron Chef life every day. Like what's in the basket? I don't know.

Greg 22:25

It's really funny. But you're ready to go. It's really once you, you know, it's almost like Zen mindset. Like once you let go of your resistance, it's really fun. It just flows. Yeah.

Doug 22:34

And I'm just going to rattle off what I can remember. We had like this cornbread starter dish. There was a lovely like pasta and like a chicken and a broth. And I just again I'm sort of gobsmacked. You had nothing in your mind that like, oh well if we need we'll pull from this pantry or whatever. You used everything that was left over in house from the draft weekend. My goodness. Yeah. It was amazing. Yeah.

Alyssa 22:57

And there's a lot of dignity around that work as well. Um just thinking about making sure that what we're putting out there is delicious, that demonstrates healthy ingredients and the use of that, but then also speaks to um people's cultural backgrounds and what they might want to eat or be able to eat or they have certain dietary restrictions. Like we really pay attention to all of that when we're making meals.

Greg 23:23

Yeah I mean that that speaks right to my the second point that I wanted to get to the most inspirational chef that I ever worked for taught me the most important thing that they taught me the biggest most radical thing that I learned in working in kitchens prior to this 412 food rescue kitchen was the power that food has to bring people together. That's what's important to me about it. I know that there's lots of stuff that's important about food but that is what's beautiful to me about this work. And that was like how we got to the Fourth and Feast event. Yeah.

Alyssa 23:54

Um I was just thinking I often say that too food brings people together and we want to make sure that when people are coming together dignity for food around the dignity of the meal and really paying attention to what we're putting out into the community.

Greg 24:09

Yeah there's a there's a handful of basic premises that I that I work from day to day one the food is good. Two everybody deserves access to it.

Alyssa 24:20

Well put thank you. Yeah food is a basic need, but it's also a basic right and there is nobody that should not have food. So I think we all operate from that and we have a very low barrier to accepting food from us. We we get it out to community partners and then individuals come to wherever they may be located. But we might go to a very small kitchen at a religious organization in the Keysport or we could be going to a fairly large nonprofit downtown Pittsburgh. So we really try to get the food out equitably and distribute it again with the um the the really the care for the community.

Doug 25:05

You know you have me thinking and Greg

Personal Food Stories From Alyssa And Greg

Doug 25:07

you sparked this you you both have such a passion for what you're doing right now. I'd like to ask a little bit about you both more personally and relation to food. Greg, I'll start with you. Since you came up in you know the chef world so to speak what drew you there? Like what was food life like as a youngster were you cooking at an early age or were people cooking for you?

Greg 25:29

That's so interesting. Uh I I'm an only child. My relationship to food was strained I think until I started cooking I think I went I moved into cooking to build a better relationship with food. Wow a lot of um microwave TV dinner type stuff in my in my childhood. My father so my father's father was a chef and his oldest brother was a chef as well. Oh my there uh he was an immigrant to America from Barbados and the father his so my grandfather and my uncle stayed behind in Barbados and ran their restaurant.

Doug 26:04

Okay.

Greg 26:05

Uh my father was a doctor who loved cooking he would only cook however on holidays. So like the best food was coming once a year, twice a year and it was like a joyous occasion for him. Yeah. But then the rest of the year he was just working he was on call he was at the emergency room he was doing all this other stuff. And my mom and I just kind of my mom had a very strange relationship to food. A lot of canned goods that are like expired a lot of just like you know no shade to my mom. She was doing what she could do. Right. And I think it's generational folks live. Yeah totally it's it's how she grew up and you know but my mom is like a person who doesn't drink water you know like of any kind you know what I mean. So like two very different experiences from your coming together.

Doug 26:52

On your dad's side it sounds like the cooking's really in the blood.

Greg 26:54

Yeah. Yeah. But I spent less and like not very much time with that family because they were so distant. So I think cooking was accessible to me as a job as a as a youth coming out of college and I saw the value of repairing my relationship or at least exploring my relationship to food. And I, you know I started washing dishes and then I moved up to baking the cornbread muffins for the guys at the barbecue place and then just kept gathering skills yeah and learning more and more about food. So that's what drove me. Well look where you are now my goodness. And yeah now I'm I I'm still kind of exploring that with this work. Like I'm I'm constantly learning and I'm constantly at play with the food in a way that's not um nothing is by rote in this kitchen. Right.

Doug 27:41

I I also think you're you're building relationships for others with food not just for yourself.

Greg 27:46

That's and maybe that's what my like most mature phase looks like. What a great story.

Doug 27:51

Well thank you.

Greg 27:52

Yeah thank you.

Doug 27:52

Thanks for asking Alyssa what about you and food in this organization? What was food life like growing up for you and and what led you here?

Alyssa 28:01

Yeah it's interesting to think about um so I grew up in the city in Pittsburgh um in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood which is um has a lot of international um people and restaurants and even um back in the day um we often went to restaurants my parents um wanted to expose us to all different types of cultures and it was delicious food as well and my mom worked as well and so oftentimes meals were um sometimes it was craft macaroni and cheese and some cut up oranges but oftentimes it would be neighborhoods would get together and we would have meals uh we had a wonderful Italian family that lived in the um we were in a duplex and they were on the floor above us. Oh and oh I still remember like the pizza they made and spaghetti and pasta and whenever the Steelers went to the Super Bowl that was the place to be. Oh my gosh. And then my first job was actually working as a hostess uh at Rhoda's deli in the Squirrel Hill. And um and then Greg and I were actually talking about our food um in college I worked at the deli counter and so boy that was uh very uh interesting a lot of uh fun characters would come in especially Saturday morning and people were very precise about when you were cutting their meat what how it was sliced and then when you put it on the scale. So um I think that's just you know one of the great things about having that experience in um in kitchens and in food and then my brother actually uh ran a couple of restaurants in Pittsburgh and called upon the family um before my mom became a travel agent she was a waitress okay so uh so I remember even as a young child she would bring her tip money home and spread it on the floor and that was the activity for me and my brothers to put in you know roll the coins. Yeah restaurants um go way back and so one of the things when um I've been in this role here for two years and uh but my career has been nonprofit human services really um you know connecting people to benefits and to resources and when you think about food and food insecurity and especially then the environmental impact it just rolled it all up very nicely um in my past and my passions.

Doug 30:22

Yes all of those experiences sort of collided into a great role for you right now. Yeah yeah for sure so much yeah thank you both for sharing a little bit about yourselves I would like to turn back to the organization too so we just mentioned the meal we had after the draft what's ahead maybe throughout the year are there any new events or goals coming up we are on a path to rescue five million pounds of food this year.

Alyssa 30:52

Yes incredible yeah it's amazing I think last year we hit around 4.7 pounds so um so in doing that it takes a lot of effort and partnerships and collaboration and we have such a fantastic team of people at 412 food rescue just really coming to the work passionate about the impact we're making smart um really innovative and flexible so um we had the event uh after the draft the draft took a lot of our attention and focus uh for several months uh beforehand and so now I think we took a little bit of a very quick deep breath and um we're working on some partnerships um and hopefully events that will wrap around that we know we're gonna do something in September we haven't quite nailed it down in terms of an event um we have um we call it the Carrot Club so it's a monthly giving program and we have that has really expanded over the last year. So people who support our work month to month and we want to gather that group together and thank them and then offer them opportunities to get involved in our work. So there's always something going on you know pay attention to our website pollintifrescue.org to learn about opportunities to volunteer day to day at the kitchen but then also how to download the app and then other things we might have going on. Thank you for that.

Greg 32:16

Yeah Greg do you want to talk about the sure so for me my focus um is currently on the food as medicine space as well as that quote unquote education piece which I think I'll I'll refer to as cooking engagement for the moment um and really just engaging people around conversations around food. Yeah I think there's a lot of focus currently on the food as medicine space obviously nutrition is health um how can we forge stronger partnerships with healthcare organizations or with communities or both um other services that are focused on you know nutrition and health um how can we build stronger partnerships build better relationships that serve the community still just marching on with the good work I I did want to ask a sort of a side question if you're not doing it.

Doug 33:04

Have I seen a partnership with I want to say it's breweries, right? Have you come out with like a beer in the past? Is that something you're still doing?

Alyssa 33:14

Yes yes we we have done that in the past oftentimes when we've had surplus specific goods mass I think mass donation we've taken care of every partner and there's still more tomatoes or there's still more whatever yeah that was the yeah I was thinking about the tomato beer that um vellum made uh vellum fermentation uh last year and I think we're working on something else with them as well so um we're always looking for more partnerships I know we've done one with Cinderland's as well where we provided strawberry and the Pané Pronto collaboration as well we bread yeah okay which is part of a major part of beer making yeah Pane Pronto part of the DiAnois group correct so yeah you did some with millies too ice cream yeah these are nice business partnerships just to keep keep people aware keep ourselves in the loop with our food partners with our food donor partners etc so smart and the strawberries that you have uh some of the jam yeah yeah so that was a great example where there was a company that over ordered strawberries I believe and so we made it into a jam.

Greg 34:22

As well as yeah I mean it made it to a lot of partners as well. I I only took I think half of a pallet for the jam and there were many many pallets of strawberries.

Alyssa 34:31

Yeah which is you know a beautiful thing to be able to put out into the community to have that those fresh berries. Right.

How To Follow Volunteer And Download App

Doug 34:38

Well it's been so lovely to get to know both of you and the organization I I always like to remind folks that are listening uh how they can find and follow you. Alyssa you had just mentioned it earlier the website is 412foodrescue.org. Yes can you remind us the other social places you exist maybe Instagram or Facebook?

Alyssa 35:00

We're on Facebook, Instagram and uh LinkedIn Okay. That covers it.

Doug 35:06

I think and all 412 Food Rescue across the board.

Alyssa 35:10

Right. Um food Rescue Hero also has a presence um uh on LinkedIn um that you can follow our partners across the country and internationally who are using the same software and then some of our product development as well.

Doug 35:24

And the app is Food Rescue Hero. Yes so we can go to any app store and download that and we can start rescuing food. That's right. Right. Let's do that.

Alyssa 35:34

Please do yeah yeah that would be great well again it's been such a pleasure I I always have a customary question at the end. Yes so the name of the show is the Pittsburgh dish what's the best dish that you have had to eat this past week I think for me um we had some broccoli at home and we uh I roasted it with I love roasted vegetables. So so easy. A little oil I like a little salt I like a lot of pepper. Yes I put a lot of pepper on it and um then we made a pasta and it went right on top of that a little bit of oil and uh yeah it was delicious. Perfect. Yeah and easy sometimes when you open your refrigerator and you you see I saw this bag of broccoli and I was like oh what can I do with that? I don't want it of course I don't want it to go bad right um and it was just very easy and luckily my family enjoys it as well. That's good. Yeah.

Doug 36:40

Alyssa do you like to cook?

Alyssa 36:42

Um I do like to cook. I um my one of my resolutions this year was um every month to try a new recipe because I get like a lot of cooking magazines baked from scratch and all um and even other magazines that have recipes and I love to read the recipes and so I've like let me try what yeah let's take action right not just make the same thing over and over. So um so that's been kind of fun. So I do like to cook. I don't always have uh the the time that I'd like to well broccoli and pasta sound perfect.

Doug 37:13

Yeah it was delish. Greg, what about you?

Greg 37:16

We know you like to cook too I love talking about food. Okay. Uh okay so the cabbage and ginger and chicken that you had. Yes this is like a braise almost like a stew it's a viral it's like a viral Instagram recipe that I and and I've been loving it lately. I made it again yesterday.

Doug 37:33

You did yeah I did yeah so this is a brothy concoction right with we I we had like whole chicken parts right yeah it's a one pot recipe.

Greg 37:41

It's like a crock pot recipe all of the moisture I mean this is like a traditional Chinese medicine thing like all of the moisture it comes from the food itself you're supposed to be eating your moisture right yeah eating your uh hydration so it's cabbage I used chicken legs and eyes um and some of the best parts some ginger and that's it. Oh wow you just you can just let it go just put that in your crock pot, seal it up and in an hour the chicken is fall apart, it's juicy, the cabbage has like you know let its moisture out but it stays in the pot and all of those flavors are working well together.

Doug 38:18

So good.

Greg 38:18

Yeah so I love that I also had a really great onigiri in New York City like three weeks ago that was life changing. Okay you're giving us a bonus it was like this little coffee shop and just crushingly good.

Doug 38:34

So good yeah that's great well again Alyssa Greg thank you both so much for spending time with me today and thanks for being on the Pittsburgh dish thank you so much for having us this was awesome yeah thank you so much Doug this has been a lot of fun we really appreciate it well thanks for all the great work we appreciate you thank you

Swifties Spark A Sancerre Wine Trend

Doug 38:57

up next are Swifties giving the white wine industry a bump Catherine Montest fills us in hey Catherine Hi there Doug you know you are always our resident resource when it comes to wine Catherine I I just had a simple question for you this week and it's what's hot in wine right now the thing that's kind of hot in wine right now comes from Taylor Swift. Really?

Catherine 39:24

Yes okay so during her Eras tour and you know they filmed the documentary and it was on Disney in one of the episodes there was kind of a long shot I think it was episode five where there was a bottle of wine in the background and you know Taylor Swift fans they are all about the details I know where this is going.

Doug 39:47

That wine took off didn't it?

Catherine 39:49

It sold out within days the specific wine so let's talk a little bit about what's going on there.

Doug 39:57

Did Taylor Swift even drink this wine?

Catherine 40:00

That's a good question. So Taylor Swift has oh since back in the 20 teens when she was on an episode of the Ellen de Generis show and Ellen asked her what she drank immediately boom white wine. I drink Sanserre, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc and that was her answer like seven or eight years ago. Okay. Okay. The bottle that was on the table was a bottle of Saint-Serre. So she's very consistent. Yeah she's committed. She's committed and soansre is a white wine it's from a very specific region in the Loire Valley in France and that region is called Saint Serre. Okay. And what's kind of fun is Sancerre is made with Sauvignon Blanc grapes. So she named Sauvignon Blanc twice but probably didn't know it.

Doug 40:53

Well that's okay Taylor totally okay.

Catherine 40:55

She's not you Catherine oh Doug you are too too kind of but yeah so Sancerre it's got really wonderful flavors of like citrus and a little bit of elder flower and some grassy notes. And they say that it has a gooseberry flavor in it, but I I've never tasted a gooseberry so I have no idea if it does or if it doesn't. Okay.

Doug 41:22

We can probably go to IKEA and find some jam to take care of that with you.

Catherine 41:26

Gooseberry jam I think they have it. I think you might be right. Yeah okay that sounds like that's on the shopping list now. And uh the sancerres tend to be very light bodied and they're somewhat dry. So they're really good to sip on a warm afternoon.

Doug 41:42

Okay.

Catherine 41:42

And they pair really well with a lot of foods. So they're gonna go great with a salad um great with a lot of your seafood dishes.

Doug 41:50

Okay.

Catherine 41:51

And what I like about the Sancerre as opposed to some other Sauvignon Blancs is that it's it's softer and it's much more approachable. A lot of Sauvignon Blancs particularly those from New Zealand or Australia tend to have a note to them that wine professionals call cat pee.

Doug 42:14

Oh I don't think I'd like that.

Catherine 42:18

Well the wine doesn't taste like that but it has a little bit of a whiff of an aroma. It's one of those notes it's one of those notes and if you're smelling a sans serre from the War valley in France you're going to smell that brightness and the crispness of the citrus and the flowers and the grass. And if you're smelling one from other parts of the world you might get a little whiff of something the cat left behind. But not the sancerre but not the sancerre okay yeah that's not a note that that comes along with that wine.

Doug 42:49

I don't know what to say next. I want to say that the sancerre keeps a clean litter box.

Catherine 42:56

I think the wine world has a little um debt of thanks to oh our good friend Taylor Swift because wine sales have been kind of down and millennials of which she is one have started kind of picking up the ball and drinking more wines and actually according to a couple of studies are drinking more wines than the boomers than than me and my my peers interested and white wines in particular Sauvignon Blanc are kind of leading the way millennials are really getting into white wines and in fact last year white wine outsold red wine for the first time in over 30 years.

Doug 43:39

So Catherine we're talking about San cerre it's a white wine that is a Savion Blanc it doesn't smell like cat pee. Not in the least and it's hot right now because of our friend Taylor Swift. It's real hot right now. Okay. Well thank you so much for putting this on our radar and thanks for being on the Pittsburgh Dish. Always a pleasure Doug thank you you can learn more about Catherine at her website your fairywinemother.com If you enjoyed the show we would love for you to become a monthly monetary supporter just click the link at the bottom of this show's description or visit our website at Pittsburghdish.com and tap the support button. And if you want to follow my own food adventures you can find me on social media at DougCooking. That's our show for this week thanks again to all of our guests and contributors and to Kevin Solecki of Carnegie Accordion Company for providing the music to our show. We'll be back again next week with another fresh episode. Stay tuned