GREEN LIGHT

Recovered Food Nourishes Families of New Babies

The FoodRx program is a collaboration between 412 Food Rescue, the American Heart Association and local doulas

June 10, 2025

New parents typically have a lot on their plates

A program being piloted in Pittsburgh aims to remove some of that burden and replace it with healthy meals. FoodRx, a collaboration between 412 Food Rescue, the American Heart Association, First Steps & Beyond, and local doulas, provides a month of free, nutritious meals to newly-delivered parents and their families, alleviating food insecurity during the critical postpartum period.

Food insecurity is an ongoing crisis in the U.S., affecting approximately one and ten people. It is highly prevalent in households with pregnant women and mothers of children under 2 years of age, where it negatively impacts children’s health.

Research indicates that the emotional and behavioral disturbance of food insecurity is exacerbated for infants when their parents are battling red tape to get the help they need.

Yet these struggles are occurring in the midst of abundance: The U.S. produces more than enough food for its residents, but some 40% of what we produce ends up going to waste. The FoodRx program uses the second problem to address the first, tapping local food recovery and parental health resources to bridge the gap between good food at risk of being thrown away and families facing the challenging period when an infant is newly home from the hospital.

Handling the logistics is 412 Food Rescue, which has been redirecting surplus food to people facing food insecurity since 2015 and is now the largest volunteer food rescue organization in the country. Its Food Rescue Hero app, used by organizations across the U.S., enables volunteers to rapidly transport donations composed of 80% fresh foods. 

For large local rescues, the organization makes use of its Good Food Project, a zero-waste kitchen located in the Food & Energy Hub in Millvale that transforms donated food into complete, ready-to-eat meals that are delivered to a variety of community access points. Through FoodRx, those locations now include the homes of families with new babies.

Participants in FoodRx are referred by doulas and begin receiving meals as soon as they return home with their babies – no red tape-wrangling needed. They receive 48 nutritionally-balanced meals over four weeks, delivered right to their doors. 412 Food Rescue initially set a goal to serve 75 families in the program’s pilot year; they’ve already reached 85% of that goal.