Who We Are — Keep Austin Fed

Our (Short) Story

Keep Austin Fed is a heavily volunteer based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that gathers wholesome surplus food from commercial kitchens and distributes it to area charities that serve people in need.

Keep Austin Fed began in 2004, when founder Randy Rosens saved high quality catered food from an Austin Museum of Art Fundraising event at Laguna Gloria that was headed to the dumpster. The food fed a group of women and children living at a shelter in South Austin.

Today our volunteers rescue thousands of meals each month, feeding hundreds of our neighbors living with food insecurity — the 1 in 7 people in Austin who do not know where their next meal will come from. In addition, we are starting to put a dent in the approximately 30 percent of food in the U.S. that ends up in a landfill and produces methane gas.

Our volunteers

All of our food rescue runners are volunteers that are passionate about helping their neighbors and saving the planet. Our runners are all required to have a state approved Food Handler's Permit, and attend a 2 hour orientation and training session. We want to be sure that the food that we are delivering to folks is safely transported and is of quality that we would eat it ourselves.

All of our volunteers use their own cars and gas for the transport of food. They are everyday people, with everyday lives. We have food rescues scheduled with our regular donor partners for every day of the week, so our volunteers are able to sign up for the runs that fit the schedules of their busy lives.

In addition to our scheduled food rescues, we have "on-demand" food rescue calls come into our hotline daily. We rely on our volunteers with a more flexible schedule to respond to the call for these food pick ups.

Interested in being a volunteer? Find out more about all of our volunteer opportunities, and help us Keep Austin Fed!