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Volunteering with Food Rescue US Since 2020

In the early days of 2020, when COVID shut down life as we knew it, we’ve been volunteering with Food Rescue Columbus, which is part of Food Resuce US. Founded in Fairfield County, Ohio, as of 2025, it’s in 43 locations across 23 states, the District of Columbia, and growing.

What the USDA did was amazing.

At the time, when restaurants were closed, and all the food that had been going to catering halls and restaurants, had no place to go. So instead of all that food going to waste, the USDA stepped in and created the Farmers to Families program. The USDA bought that food, and curated it into 30 lb boxes, each filled with meat, milk, cheese and fresh vegetables.

Food Rescue US (and other organizations throughout the country) organized to disseminate that food to community organizations, food pantries, and churches.

Every Saturday, neither snow, nor rain, nor sleet, deterred us from our mission. Many times during the winter, we “warmed up” in the refrigerated trucks, since they were 32 degrees, and outdoors it was often much, much colder.

Starting at 8am, 30-40 volunteers gathered to unload 2-3 semis and load up whatever vehicle came by for food, as well as loading up the UHaul trucks we rented.

A peek at loading trucks during the pandemic.

Check out this quick video of a small but mighty group of Columbus volunteers unloading 2 – 3 semis a week, and loading those boxes into trucks, cars and UHaul trucks we rented.

If you have an interest in getting involved, you can email either Susan Swinford or Emily Rials.

A very brief history of Food Rescue US.

Since Food Rescues founding, they’ve provided more than 166 million meals and kept more than 199 million pounds of excess food out of landfills.

The Food Rescue group of Columbus helps keep a million pounds of food out of landfills, and into the homes of people who need it, every year. It’s an impressive feat, however, when you realize 1 million pounds of food goes into the Columbus landfill every DAY, there’s so much more that can be done.

After the pandemic…

When things started getting back to normal, and restaurants opened again, we’re doing our part by volunteering two days a week, 2 hours at a time. Between those two days, we pick up from:

• OSU Medical Hospital
• Brugger’s Bagels
• Lox Bagels
• High Line Catering
• North Market and
• Fox in the Snow on North Fourth Street

We’re doing our tiny part of the hundreds of pickup and drop off locations that happen every month right here in Columbus. As of the summer of 2025, we’ve had the good fortune to have done over 2,000 pick ups and drops. We understand that’s in the top handful that any volunteer has done in Columbus.

We’ve also designed the graphics for Food Rescue’s refrigerated truck.

We suggested the theme: “Food for Thought. Thought for Food.” for a video series.

We’ve also helped pull together a series of videos under the expertise of Susan Swinford, Emily Rials and expert videographer, Todd Yarrington, under the theme “Food for Thought. Thought for Food.”

Crossroads World Outreach Ministries a ministry that seeks to lift men and women out of the darkness and in to his light.

OSU StarHouse  provides local youth experiencing homelessness with a safe respite & the crucial connections to stabilizing resources—all in one .

Friends of the Homeless who provides support to homeless men and women through emergency shelter, transitional and supportive housing.

Interview with a Food Rescuer

Farmers to Families Program

Food donations from Dublin Methodist Hospital

Food Rescue to Promise House, who leads the way in providing youth in our community access to the most basic needs – shelter, nourishment and access to healthcare.