Proud to be from Pittsburgh: 412 Food Rescue super volunteer

PITTSBURGH — Vincent Petti's pickup truck is his office. He is one of thousands of volunteers with 412 Food Rescue, a group with the goal of saving food waste in Pittsburgh and redistributing it to organizations that help people in need. Channel 11 spoke to co-founder Leah Lizarondo about 412 volunteers like Petti.

"Our volunteers and our work has collectively rescued over 6.5 million pounds of food over four years," she said.

Petti isn't just a casual volunteer. He's the first to rescue more than 100,000 pounds of food. We asked how many people that helps.

"100,000 pounds of food is almost 100,000 meals," said Lizarondo.

When we caught up with Petti, he was already working on more collections.

"To be the leading volunteer doesn't mean that much to me," Petti said. "I'm thankful for the recognition."

On the day Channel 11 followed along with him, Petti picked up produce from the Strip District and brought it to Abiding Missions in Allentown. The organization has worked with him for two years, collecting dropoffs that stock the produce wagons that help people in this food desert.

"It's wonderful the way he gets to know what our needs are, gets to know members of our community, as well, welcomes them to help him load and unload," said Christine Rotella, the chaplain of Abiding Ministries. "It's a tremendous relationship."

Petti said he has had a blessed life and it was just right to do something more with it.

"My wife and I, you know, we're basically living the dream. We're retired. We have enough money to do things we want to do," Petti said. "It was time for us to start giving back."

412 Food Rescue is always looking for more volunteers to help with food pickups and dropoffs. Click on this link to see how you can get involved: https://412foodrescue.org/.

Cox Media Group