Green Shoots & Big Shifts

Forty percent of the food produced in the United States gets thrown out, and the nutrition in a third of that waste is enough to end food insecurity. Robert Lee, founder of Rescuing Leftover Cuisine, left a finance job at JP Morgan to close that gap. He grew up as the second son of Korean American parents who struggled with food access, joined a student club at NYU that carried leftover dining hall food to shelters, and built that idea into an organization now rescuing food across all 50 states.


Chapters:

00:00 Welcome and show intro

01:00 Robert's journey and what inspired RLC

02:46 What Rescuing Leftover Cuisine does

03:33 Scaling carefully and sustainable growth

06:03 Where RLC operates today

07:00 The scale of food waste

08:33 A food rescue story that stuck

10:02 How to donate food and how pickup works

10:58 Partners, shelters, and a school program

12:33 Launching the Every Bite app in Boston

13:33 What's next and making food rescue the standard

15:35 Advice for starting small and taking action

17:53 How Robert thinks about impact

19:53 One word to leave listeners with


Learn more about Rescuing Leftover Cuisine:

- Website - https://rescuingleftovercuisine.org

- Download the Evrybite App: https://www.evrybite.com/download-evrybite




What is Green Shoots & Big Shifts?

Green Shoots & Big Shifts is hosted by Reetu Gupta, who started the show to have open, hopeful conversations about what it really takes to make sustainability part of how we live, lead, and work.

Each week, she talks with people doing innovative, meaningful work, turning ideas into action. From startup founders and corporate change-makers to community leaders - reimagining how business, society, and the planet can thrive together.
These are stories about innovation, collaboration, possibility, and the everyday shifts that move us toward a more abundant and resilient future.

you're listening to Green Shoots and Big Shifts

the show that spotlights the people and ideas

transforming our world for the better

I'm your host Reetu Gupta

in every episode

I'll be talking with innovators and trailblazers

who are reimagining our relationship with our planet

earth whether it's a small spark of innovation

or a sweeping shift in how we live and work

we'll explore the stories that give us hope

and the actions making a difference

together we are planting seeds of change

and driving big shifts for a healthier

abundant sustainable future

Hi welcom to the podcast green shoots and big shifts

this is your host Reetu Gupta

and I'm very excited

to have our next guest on the podcast

Robert Lee from Rescuing Leftovers and cuisines

welcome Robert

how are you good

good how are you

thanks for having me yeah

so I know

we've talked a little bit about your journey

in starting Rescuing Leftover Cuisine

would love for you to share your journey

what inspired you to start the organization

um yeah

anything else you would like to share absolutely

yeah it is a long kind of story

but I'll try to keep it short truly

I think for me it was very uh personal

I am the second son of Korean Americans

who came to the US looking for a better life

and they um

didn't know how to speak the language

and so they struggled and so

I grew up thinking that food

insecurity was kind of just normal across the board

that everyone was struggling to find food and um

I uh

yeah I

I only kind of you know

realized later on when people started to

you know do cute things like throw out the ends of like

their sandwiches cause they don't wanna eat it

or throw out baby carrots and

and you know uh

food that they just didn't want to eat

and so I um

uh was very much focused on career and finance

uh and when I went to NYU uh

I came across a club that brought leftover dining hall

food to homeless shelters

and that really kind of opened my eyes to the fact that

we can rescue our excess food

and we can bring it to people who need it

and I just got really kind of involved deeply

and that's how I ended up working on two birds

one stone which is the club

and eventually

that kind of turned into rescuing leftover cuisine

yeah yeah

I love I love that

you took something from your lived experience

and now you're giving back to the society

what does um

if you if you wanna just describe

what does Rescuing Leftover Cuisine does

yeah how does absolutely

how does it support people happy to

I think um

you know it's kind of self explanatory with the name

but we basically rescue

anything that is excess from food businesses

like restaurants catering companies

from cafeterias within office buildings

we even work with cafeteria uh

with with um

stadiums as well and uh

we bring that food that would otherwise go to waste

and we bring it to people who need it

at homeless shelters soup kitchens and food pantries

we use a proprietary Ruby on rails

web application

that kind of helps us coordinate all these rescues

and essentially we have volunteers

who are basically the backbone of our organization

and they essentially

help us transport the food from one place to another

yeah yeah

and I know you're working with

as you said college campuses

but you're also partnering with a diverse set of like

restaurants and cafeterias etcetera

how did you approach like scaling up

and I'm sure there were many lessons Learned

and some challenges that you had to overcome

while doing that like

how do you

how do you work with like such a variety of partners

how how do you think about skill

yeah I think um

skill is definitely one of those things where

we would love to be everywhere

and we would love to grow a much faster

but it is something that I think

needs to be done very carefully

we definitely in the early days grew a little bit too

um recklessly

uh huh we uh

essentially grew any way we could right

we took we just said

yes to any opportunity where we could rescue food

and I don't I don't necessarily regret it

right I mean

I think we wanted to rescue food that would otherwise

go to waste and we wanted to feed people with it

right that I don't see anything wrong with that

but I do think that rescuing

food in a sustainable manner

is more important

than rescuing food and feeding someone today right like

you know if we can fix a problem kind of long term

and provide the opportunity for people to actually eat

in the long term

then it actually is much more beneficial for people

then it is just to do you know

a tiny one time thing and so personally

I think looking at growth and expansion

we want to do it in a systematized way

one that you know

it it a

a method that kind of works

and ensures that there are people

who can keep on carrying it forward

that's how we see scale now

um and organically

financially sustainable

growth is much more important

than just a one time growth spurt

that isn't sustainable in the long run

yeah yeah

thank you for sharing that

and thank you for talking about like

like I was at a conference

and we were talking about some of the models

that have worked in the past for

for scaling may not work in the future

because if we had redesigning how we work and live and

and consume then some of the models

which are like probably 200 years old

because they started in industrial revolution

and how we think about scale

may not be applicable going forward

especially yeah

if you wanted to be a sustainable business

but also environmentally exactly sustainable

so I really appreciate exactly you saying that

no hundred percent yeah

and there's so many different facets of sustainability

as well yeah

so where are you operating currently

what's your area of operations

like geographically we operate yeah

geographically we operate in all um

the 50 states of the United States

for our large scale operations

and then for our branch operations

we operate in nine different cities across the country

and um

we're looking to slowly but surely grow that hmm

that's wonderful how can as you're growing

how can like you know

anyone in the audience help you support you

yeah absolutely

I think there's a lot of different ways to help

I think firstly

spreading the word and having that awareness around

the amount of food that goes to waste

I think is the first step just because

you know many people don't realize that

the amount of food that we waste

is enough to eliminate food insecurity

in terms of nutrition and so

starting with that awareness

and then telling people about it

I think um

asking your favorite restaurant or food business

what do they do with their excess food

and providing an option

like rescuing our food in is very helpful yeah

can you share like you know

can you help us understand

what's the magnitude of food waste

and how and where it gets wasted today

absolutely yeah

I mean

of the food that is being produced in our country

40% of the food is wasted right

and it's it's a substantial amount and like I mentioned

30% of the food that is going to waste um

is enough nutrition to eliminate food insecurity

so it's a massive massive problem

and uh

the good thing is we can all do something about it

you know

we have an opportunity three times a day to reduce that

you know food that's going to waste

and is most of the food you're saying is

is getting wasted at

like the kitchen table and at restaurants

so it it looks like that's what I'm gleaning alright

and it looks like as an individual as well

we can make we can make a difference in in this

absolutely

hundred percent yeah

the biggest culprit is actually on the consumer end

very interesting very interesting

yeah and you know

we haven't even touched on like if we are wasting food

which is maybe sitting in our fridge

and hasn't been used or we exactly

I had too many leftovers that we didn't eat

for some reason

again it's not

it's not meeting like someone else is not getting is

is not meeting someone else's food needs

but it's also a huge

huge like resource drain on the planet because we keep

you know the more we waste

the more needs to be produced to fill that gap

deviating a little bit you know

I'm sure you have stories

many success stories can you tell

like any story that is close to your heart

where the work you did made made

made a difference yeah

I mean there's

there's quite a lot I think

you know one of the early stories that we had

still resonates to this day

I mean I think

one of the food rescue that we did

was actually from a restaurant that was closing

and they had all kinds of inventory left over

one of which was you know

dairy products milk

and we we

you know always get from our non profit recipients

they always need protein dairy

um and vegetables

and you know

typically we're not able to get as much on

of the protein and dairy items

but this time around we were able to get it

and um

you know one of the places we dropped off the food at

there was a individual who was

basically a single parent

who didn't have you know

food for their child and they

you know came up to us and told us

you know the dairy and the milk is just really

really helpful for their family

and trying to get back on their feet

so you know

stories like that really do

you know make a huge difference uh

kind of for for what we're trying to do

I mean just thinking

about the fact that like that restaurant closing

they could have just closed

and just thrown out all their food right

but the fact that they did decide to try and

you know donate it

I think is just is just tremendous

and every place you know

should be donating their excess food

why not you know

it can go to someone who really needs it

so if a restaurant or a company decides to donate food

how do how do they reach you

like

what's the best way to get in contact and start that

yeah conversation

there's a lot of different ways we can yeah

we the best way honestly is our website

Rescuing LA Perouse in dot org

there's a donate food portion of our website

and there's a little bit of a

you know donation form that you can fill out

but people can also text us

call us 6 4 6 5 9 2

2 2 2 9

people can email us info at rescuing our cuisine

dot org whatever is easiest really

and for the for the donating part

are you were happy to do and then do you pick it up

or how does how does the rescuing work

yeah yeah

we're happy to pick it up

uh we try to make it as easy as possible

uh for the donating party

um you know

people tell us where and when to be and uh

we can coordinate that's that's super cool

and then

it looks like you have partners that you distribute

the the food

do like

can you talk about some of your partners that

you're working with absolutely yeah

we have a lot of different partners across the country

many of them are homeless shelters

soup kitchens food pantries

but we also work with community centers

schools even

and there's one in particular in New York City uh

where they had a program where they

essentially provide resources to students

who are looking to go to college

and many of the students um

unfortunately chose to um

you know go to a program where they got free food

instead of that program and um

we were able to provide food to the program

that provides that extra resource

so that they can get the free food

and attend that class or

or course

so there are a lot of different kind of use cases

really

but truly we're just trying to help fill gaps and uh

make it as easy as possible

for people to get that excess food

yeah that's

that's really how do I say it

yeah it's really

it really hurts to think about

people have to choose between

you know going to a class

and going to class and having food there

but yeah I remember like when I was back in my

in graduate school we had visited one of the

one of the elementary schools

this was in Columbus Ohio

and that was the first time

I saw what food insecurity looked like

because they were saying sometimes like

the only like

nutritious meal these kids were getting was at school

so yeah it is yeah

it is like mind boggling to think about like

how much food excess there is

and then there are people who don't even get like

3 meals a day in in

in the US right yeah

that's heavy

but I'm glad you're doing something about it

I mean we have to

we have all these resources

let's not let it go to waste

yeah absolutely

I also remember and correct me if

if I'm wrong you

you're in the process of launching a mobile app

is that yes

that's right great memory

yes we actually just launched it

oh

and um yeah

it's very nascent it's still a beta launch

but uh

for those of you in Boston

we'd love to have you try it out

and it can people can do

it's called everybody yeah

and you know yeah

sorry we can do

we can share all the links in the episode description

so thank you thank you

thank you that sounds wonderful

yeah so if you're in Boston

download the app and check it out

uh so I know yeah

the app is called Every Bite and it's e v r y

B I t e

and it's basically too good to go

except all the food that's not sold is also donated

so yeah definitely check it out if you're in Boston

thank you great

thank you for sharing that resource

you know my other question is like

this mobile app is really exciting

what does like what are you excited about

I like in the next 2 3 years

where do you want to take the organization

what are you yeah

what excites you yeah

I mean I think it's a really exciting time in general

for food rescue I feel like when we first started

and I quit my job at JP Morgan to do this full time

people thought it was illegal

I remember people would say like hey

you know this is illegal

you can't do this right

and I would have to print out and show people the Bill

Emerson

Good Samaritan Act of 1996 to prove that it was legal

and that the IRS actually incentivized food donations

right so now

I feel like it is actually incredible to see almost

you know 13 years later that um

I can call RLC a food rescue organization

and people know what that is

I think the momentum in this space is is quite strong

I think there are a lot of organizations

doing incredible work in this space

more food banks

and food pantries are also doing food rescue as well

um and I think that is a really encouraging sign

personally our mission is really to make food rescue

the universal standard and not the exception

and I think that as we continue to push this forward

and as this becomes stickier and stickier

I truly do think that this will be the universal

standard and will become the

the the commonplace solution that people use

and so that's what I'm really excited about yeah

I love that vision I like I'm

you know

to be able to take the food and make sure no one

no one goes hungry right

or everyone gets the nutrition they need in this world

when there is so much so much food everywhere

so yeah I'm

I'm really like going back to what you said

like you

you you know

I love that it was a tag you know

this is something that came from your lived experience

your personal journey

and then you saw this need and you went

you went to this club and then you were in

you know inspired and

and you started this organization

what would you say to someone who is

you know wanting to explore how they can make an impact

wanting to figure out like

where should I make impact

or they have a little idea

but they you know

sometimes your your

the ideas are not clear what would you say to them

how can they start their journeys

yeah I mean

I definitely you know

feel like I'm in that boat kind of quite often actually

I feel like um

I'm always you know

thinking of new ideas and haha

and thinking of all these

you know uh

crazy things truly

I think the the best advice really

is to start small and to take action right

and I feel like for me even starting with

you know RLC I

we started off just you know

as a student club that brought leftover dining hall

food to a homeless shelter

I didn't even start that club

I just

I just joined cause I thought it was a brilliant idea

and I joined to specifically um

you know target the

the problem that it didn't work on weekends

and didn't rescue food on weekends

and so you know

highlighting something small and working on it um

little by little I think is really the way to um

really you know

make an impact also own a small

you know restaurant

um and kind of diving right into

you know doing something like that

I think is really hard and I think

you know the way we started was

we just started with outdoor markets

started just selling you know

one item and just like you know

seeing how it went you know

little by little we did more markets and then we did

you know a little bit more of a permanent market

and then we you know

just took like little by little steps like

you know growing the team

little by little before we finally went

you know brick and mortar

and so I do think that those small

tiny steps are what helps you really achieve something

actually concrete and real

yeah that's such a good point

like sometimes the the barrier in our heads is like

because we are like oh

we need to hit that end goal

but if we take I heard somewhere

if we take one step every day and if you look back

then you'll see oh my God

how what a long road you have traveled

that that makes a lot of sense

anything else you wanna share with with the audience

anything we haven't talked about

like actually how do you how do you think about impact

and can you share what impact

you know your organization has made yeah

I think

I feel like it's one of those things where people

have used the word impact in many different ways

and so I think you know

we do you define it differently right

I do think that

you have to kind of define it for yourself

as well when I was working at JP Morgan full time

you know

left my job partially to try and make more of an impact

right I mean

I wanted to really be

part of something that grew

and can help change people's perception of food rescue

and help them right

and I think that that impact piece is

you know sometimes short term sometimes long term

and you know when we think about the impact

we wanna make as RLC of kind of creating this new

expectation of food donation

rather than you know trash um

I think it is something that will take a long time

impact short term

helping people you know

get the food they need is very impactful and

and changes their lives you know

ensures that they can

spend the time they need to get back on their feet

but impact long term

we wanna really change the system and uh

make it so that this is something that lasts for

forever perpetuity

so just like we used to you know

restaurants used to you know

see cooking oil as just trash

and just throw it down the drain

and now cooking oil is a commodity

you know people buy and sell it right

restaurants can sell it to companies buy the gallon

so truly I think this is a paradigm shift

and the impact that

we wanna make is much larger than just a single meal

yeah thank you

anything else you would like to share

I don't know I mean

I think uh

in general I'm just really excited to

have the opportunity to share our story

I appreciate the the patience with all the the tech

uh issues and um

definitely check out the every bite app

if you're in Boston help us with our beta launch

yeah absolutely

so last question I like to ask my guest

if there was a word

they would like to leave our listeners with today

if so what would that word

be for you honestly

I would just you know

leave the word inspiration with people

I think um

if you're not really inspired by

kind of what you're doing on a day to day basis

try to make small adjustments and changes

and you know

I do find that looking for that inspiration is

something that makes you kind of

feel more fulfilled in life

so I'd say inspiration yeah

I like that inspiration a lot

I've been thinking lately about like

you know because there's so much like

news about this is not working

that's not working but I've been thinking why

how can

how can I train my mind to think about the futures

I want and use that as inspiration to

you know move forward or make the next step as you said

so yeah with that

I want to thank you so much

Robert for being on the podcast

and thank you for to the audience for listening

thank you so much for having me