412 Food Rescue CEO to receive Global Leadership Award

A Pittsburgh entrepreneur will be honored with a 2020 Global Leadership Award by Vital Voices, a women’s leadership organization co-founded by Hillary Clinton.

Leah Lizarondo, co-founder and CEO of 412 Food Rescue, was chosen for her work harnessing “the power of technology and the generosity of everyday people to prevent more than 10 million pounds of good food from going to landfills,” Vital Voices said in a release.

The award comes as Lizarondo’s nonprofit has ended all emergency calls for food from city housing in Pittsburgh since 2016, the release said.

Lizarondo will be honored alongside Nadia Murad, an Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist; Obiageli Ezekwesili, co-founder of #BringBackOurGirls and world-renowned economic expert from Nigeria, and Dolls Clan, a feminist graffiti duo in Honduras.

The awards ceremony will take place March 11 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Past winners include Melinda Gates and Diane von Furstenberg.

412 Food Rescue has partnered with grocery stores and other venues where there is often leftover food that is still good to eat but is potentially perishable and can’t be donated to a food bank.

For example, the Giant Eagle bakery often has a lot of day-old bread and baked goods that can’t be sold to the public but are still edible. A store representative will put into an app a notification to volunteers that there is food available to be picked up.

Volunteers can then respond to the notification, pick up the food and drop it off for a charity or non-profit that serves those in need.

Asked why she started 412 Food Rescue, Lizarondo said, “because it’s there. There was no looking away from the idea. The potential is too great – that there was no other alternative but to try. And now five years later, it is more than anyone could have dreamed it would be.”

As part of the Global Leadership Awards, a portrait of Lizarondo will be included in an art exhibition: “Vital Voices: 100 Women Using Their Power to Empower.” The exhibition will be on display from International Women’s Day on March 8 through March 21 in the Hall of Nations at the Kennedy Center.