Food Rescue Tech CEO Joins Two Former Presidents to Talk Climate Justice

Pittsburgh, PENNSYLVANIA  — On May 6, Food Rescue Hero Founder and CEO Leah Lizarondo will join fellow global climate leaders to speak on a panel at the opening of the Vital Voices Global Headquarters for Women’s Leadership in downtown Washington, D.C. Lizarondo’s panel, which will focus on climate justice, will also feature former president of Ireland Mary Robinson, former president of Mauritius Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, Water Access Rwanda founder Christelle Kwizera and Women for Women International Founder Zainab Salbi.

Vital Voices is an international, non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental organization founded by Hillary Rodham Clinton that invests in women leaders. Its Global Headquarters for Women’s Leadership, located in Washington D.C.’s new “Equality Corridor,” is a first-of-its-kind physical and digital space that will be the epicenter of activity for global women leaders and their allies and a collaborative space for all women – everywhere.

In addition to the Vital Voices staff and global network of women leaders, the building will serve as a gathering place for local and visiting women’s organizations with limited resources that need a place to convene, innovate, plan, and act – all in the pursuit of tackling the world’s greatest challenges.

A three-day event will launch the building in the nation’s capital. Activities start Thurs., May 5, with a morning march of hundreds of girls and allies from the White House to the Vital Voices Global Headquarters to showcase the next generation of leaders.
Confirmed guests (subject to change) include Hillary Rodham Clinton, fashion designer and Vital Voices Board Member Diane Von Furstenberg, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, Ambassador Melanne Verveer, actor-activists Elizabeth Banks and Angelina Spicer, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad, and others.
“I’m excited to be part of this celebration of women’s leadership on some of the most urgent issues of our time,” says Lizarondo. “Climate justice is at the heart of our work at Food Rescue Hero, and I look forward to exchanging insights on this work with leaders from around the world.”

Driven by the belief that good food belongs to people, not landfills, nonprofit technology platform Food Rescue Hero enables organizations to launch and scale food recovery. It coordinates the world’s largest network of on-demand volunteer drivers, who transport surplus and donated food from businesses to nonprofits serving food-insecure communities, as well as directly to the doors of food-insecure households. Active in 16 North American cities, with a goal of 100 cities by 2030, the organization has already redirected over 80 million pounds of food.

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About Food Rescue Hero®: Food Rescue Hero transforms food rescues into movements. Purposefully designed to automate the time consuming and logistical challenges facing food rescue organizations, Food Rescue Hero enables scalable impact on food waste, food insecurity and climate change. In the United States, as much as 40 percent of the food produced is wasted while one in five people goes hungry. Food waste is also one of the leading causes of greenhouse gas emissions. Technology-coordinated, community-powered volunteer drivers are alerted when surplus food is available nearby to be picked up and delivered to a household in need or nonprofit serving people experiencing food insecurity. Since its launch in 2016, The Food Rescue Hero Network, comprised of 16 cities in the US and Canada, has diverted more than 80 million pounds of perfectly good from the landfilll and mitigated 42 million pounds of CO2 emissions. Piloted in Pittsburgh, Food Rescue Hero now measurably supports the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 2, 12 and 13, its goal is to scale food recovery in 100 cities by 2030.