1 . Leland Scales has been interested in food most of his life. He started working in restaurants when he was 14. He has a Master of Arts in food studies from Chatham University. Scales now works for an organization in Pittsburgh called 412 Food Rescue. Here is an interview with him.
Q: At Chatham University, you learned about social justice and food.
Scales: It completely changed my perspective on many aspects of the food system. I have to credit my experiences there for a great deal of the social justice work I am doing with 412 Food Rescue. It shaped my path for life.
Q: How did you get interested in 412 Food Rescue?
Seales:
Q: What do you do at 412 now?
Scales: I find non-profit organizations that get free food to people, such as an after-school program for kids that includes feeding them.
Q: Sounds like you wear lots of hats. What do you love about your job?
Scales: I love that we are able to help organizations get food to the people who really need it on a daily basis.
Q:
Scales: It’s known that even with all the great work we do to get food into the hands of those who need it, there’s still tons of food waste and there are still people out there who are in need of food.
Q: How does your organization use technology to fight hunger?
Scales: Our Food Rescue Hero app allows us to alert our food rescue heroes of donations in the area.
Q: Food rescue heroes? Who are they?
Scales: They are people who volunteer to help us get food to the organizations we partner with.
A. What did you do there?
B. What’s the worst part of your job?
C. Technology is better at ending hunger.
D. How did what you learn there affect you?
E. A colleague of mine from graduate school began working there.
F. We pair those donations with non-profit partners that are nearby.
G. I help these organizations get the food they need to run their programs.
