Around 3,000 pounds of food was rescued from the new Trader Joe's location in Northern Kentucky after its refrigerator system malfunctioned Sunday.
La Soupe first posted about the outage on social media. Partner Relation Manager Katy Nardolillo said the nonprofit got the call around 2 p.m. Sunday from a Crestview Hills store manager.
"Of course when we get a call like that we're going to come running because we don't want it to end up in a landfill," Nardolillo said. "Especially when there's hungry people here in Cincinnati."
Nardolillo said La Soupe's Executive Director Suzanne Deyoung followed the call with a string texts to volunteers, who are usually off on Sundays.
Within a few hours, the food that would have been thrown out by morning was saved.
The Enquirer has reached out to Trader Joe's Crestview Hills location for information.
La Soupe partners with many grocery stores in the area, including Trader Joe's, which it first become partners with in April 2020 after the Kenwood location had its refrigerating systems fail.
Now, La Soupe picks up unwanted food weekly from both Kenwood and Crestview Hills.
La Soupe's mission is to bridge the gap between food waste and hunger. According to its website, 40% of food in the United States is thrown away, and 2 out of 7 Cincinnatians live in poverty.
Instead of grocery stores throwing out overproduced or imperfect foods, Nardolillo said La Soupe rescues products to create nutrient-dense meals to give to those who suffer from food insecurity.
The meals cooked at La Soupe are distributed throughout the community through its partnerships with organizations that work with Cincinnatians fighting food insecurity.
Nardolillo said that La Soupe currently has 80 partners in the community, and sends out 15,000 servings per week from their kitchen.
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