Rescuing Leftover Cuisine is a national 501(c)3 nonprofit food rescue organization, operating across the United States and headquartered in New York City, that redistributes excess food to people experiencing food insecurity.

As someone who experienced food insecurity as a child, Robert Lee was very familiar with the wasted food and hunger issues facing our society. That is what led him to launch Rescuing Leftover Cuisine (RLC), a nonprofit organization that targets both the prevention of wasted food and putting an end to hunger, in New York City in the summer of 2013. He left his full time job at J.P. Morgan in 2014 to run RLC full-time, using seed money he and co-founder Louisa Chen won at a venture competition during their senior year at NYU, as well as corporate donations from his former employer. In the ten years since, RLC has expanded to nine regions and rescued over 23 million pounds of excess food.

Garbage Goddess was founded by florist Liza Lubell (New York’s Peartree Flowers) in 2019. Liza has spent over fifteen years producing and dismantling events. Disillusioned by the amount of waste that her industry created, Liza realized she could no longer work with florals unless she meaningfully shifted the industry towards earth-supportive practices.

Garbage Goddess is a solution to the trash left behind by traditional event breakdowns. We donate used decor and compost organic waste, diverting trash from landfills.

The Garbage Goddess team relies on a constellation of freelance professionals – including artists, musicians, and teachers – who care for this work and for one another.

“Our community reaches beyond the composting center. What we don’t compost we donate, and over the years, we’ve developed relationships with donation sites like Material for the Arts and schools where event decor becomes fodder for artists, students, and educators. - Liza L.”