By Kevin Burton
The first of our two Good News Network stories today means food for the hungry in Pittsburgh and food for thought for the rest of us.
I have often thought a country that produces food on the scale of the United States should have no hungry people. Yes it would take some effort to get food that is surplus in one place to other places where it is desperately needed. But why aren’t more people making that effort.
I mean really, why?
So God bless these people in Pittsburgh who decided to do something about hunger. The story is written by Andy Corbley for GNN.
“In the late 20-teens, a sort of DoorDash service for good began rescuing donated food in Pittsburgh that was nearing its expiration and diverting to other recipients who could use it.”
“Connecting with hundreds of local businesses, and with the help of an app they designed, 412 Food Rescue had created the largest volunteer-led food transport network in a single urban region by 2019.
“Using a DoorDash-like app called Food Rescue Hero, 25,000 volunteer drivers found donations of food that was perhaps not saleable for aesthetic reasons, or was nearing its sell-by date, or had arrived as part of a shipping or ordering mistake,” Corbley wrote. “Collecting it all, the volunteers brought it back to the organization’s Good Food Project kitchen in Millvale, Pittsburgh.”
“They churned out sometimes 600 meals a day for nonprofits that help feed those in need, while amassing a mess of good—some 70 million pounds of food were turned into 57 million meals, saving the food going to waste.”
“Fast forward to 2025, and their impact has become truly remarkable. At the close of 2024, they had expanded to include partners in Illinois, Arkansas, California, New York, Colorado, North Dakota, and Texas, who together rescued tens of millions of pounds of food.”
“In the United States, as much as 40 percent of the food we produce goes to waste, while one in seven people goes hungry.”
“We were founded on the principle that people are wired for good,” said Food Rescue Hero CEO Alyssa Cholodofsky, “and our Food Rescue Hero community has validated that belief many times over.”
“Ours is a story of regular people helping each other and working together to take on some of the biggest challenges facing our world. Two hundred and fifty million pounds is just the beginning,” Cholodofsky said.
“With 250 million pounds rescued, and 450 million pounds of emissions prevented, it’s the proof that people-powered solutions can prevail in the face of the biggest challenges we face today.”
The second GNN story is also food-related. A Florida chef took action to help a longtime regular customer who suddenly stopped showing up to his restaurant. This story is by Nathan Frederick.
“Something had to be wrong.”
“For more than a decade, his routine was as reliable as the sunrise: every day around 11 a.m., the door to the Shrimp Basket in Pensacola, Florida would swing open and one loyal customer would walk in.”
“Donnell Stallworth, a cook at the Shrimp Basket, said the regular visitor is like “everyone’s grandpa.” They liked him so much that, a few months ago, the staff threw him a party to celebrate his 78th birthday.”
“Every day the old man orders a cup of gumbo before heading home again.”
“But earlier this month, the man stopped showing up. As the days mounted, concern spread among Donnell and the staff.”
“Where was he?
“Donnell was determined to find out, because, by this point, the old guy was something more than a customer—he was a friend.”
“I just left work, went to his house, and I knocked on the door like two times,” he told WEAR-TV. . “The third time I knocked on it… I kind of stayed up for a minute, and I knocked again, and I heard him like, ‘Help’ and ‘Who is it?’”
“When he heard it was Donell, the man—who wasn’t named for medical privacy reasons—invited him in. He was sprawled on the floor where he had been lying for days after falling.”
“His body was badly bruised with multiple ribs broken, according to the news report. Who knows how long he would have been lying there had no one else noticed he was missing?”
“That daily cup of gumbo and a cook who cared likely saved his life.”
“He was in tears, like, ‘I don’t even know how long I’ve been here’,” Donell recalled.
“Paramedics arrived soon afterward and the senior is now on the mend, working his way back to health with a steady diet of rehab and a cup of gumbo delivered every few days by the kind chef.”
“But the staff is hoping that soon, the Shrimp Basket’s door will swing open at 11 a.m., and smiles on both sides of the counter will stretch a little bit wider—with the gumbo tasting sweeter than ever before.”
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