Volunteer

All you need is a personal vehicle, a smartphone and an hour of time to give! You’ll download the Last Mile Food Rescue app, and use the app to browse, claim and complete a rescue route. Volunteers also complete a brief food safety training in the app or online.

Food rescues happen all across Cincinnati and NKY, Monday through Saturday. Download the app to see which rescues work for your location and availability! New rescues pop up every day, so check back often.

Yes! Mini is mighty! Many food rescues can fit into a sedan. When you view a rescue on the app, you’ll see an estimate of what the average rescue there includes. If a larger vehicle is required, the rescue will say so. If you have a super small car, stick to smaller rescues like UDF and Chick-Fil-A instead of our large produce rescues like Kroger or Trader Joe’s. 

Most rescue routes take an hour or less. We try to design rescues so that you are not in the car for any longer than you might be traveling from your grocery store to your home.

When you claim a rescue, you’ll see a time range such as 10:30-11:30 a.m. This is a range for when you should PICK UP. In this example, you just need to arrive at the food donor no later than 11:30 a.m. and then take it directly to the nonprofit. 

Text or call our dispatch team at 513-449-1698. They’re always available to help while you’re on the road. There’s even a phone icon in the app that you can tap to call us anytime.

If you have questions before your rescue, check out our YouTube channel, which has lots of tutorials. Call us if we can help with anything!

If you are unable to complete a rescue, it’s easy to drop it in the app. Simply go to the “my rescues” tab and click “drop this rescue.” Or, if you have signed up for a weekly rescue, you can “request a sub” and then either drop a specific week or cancel all weeks.

If it’s within two hours of the start of the rescue, you won’t be able to drop it in the app. Just give us a call and we’ll handle it from there.

Of course! If you are unable to do rescues and still want to join the Last Mile volunteer team – or you do rescues and want to get more involved, let us know! We have “superhero” volunteers who help us with other tasks including captaining a Kroger store, helping at events or with admin work, or even doing data analytics. If you want to get involved in a bigger way, email Erin, our volunteer coordinator!