Organization: Chicago Food Rescue
Organization Type: Food Rescue Organization
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Area Served: The City of Chicago and its surrounding areas
Partner Since: 2024
250K+
Pounds rescued (2025)
1,500+
Rescues completed
Lean team
No office. No fleet. No warehouse.
$0
Cost to donors or recipients
250,000+ pounds rescued in the first year. No office. No fleet. How Food Rescue Hero gave Chicago Food Rescue the infrastructure to scale without the overhead.
Jake Tepperman didn’t just show up and download an app. He spent years inside the food rescue movement before launching Chicago Food Rescue. He started as a program manager at 412 Food Rescue in Pittsburgh, where he coordinated COVID-era food distributions during a period when 412 Food Rescue collectively moved over a million pounds of food in just two months. Jake supported Food Rescue Hero directly in helping partner organizations across the country adopt smarter food recovery systems.
When he launched his own food rescue organization in Chicago, he chose Food Rescue Hero.
Jake Tepperman is not a typical case study subject. He’s someone who helped build this network before becoming one of its flagship partners.
The problem he set out to solve
Jake doesn’t frame Chicago’s food access challenges as a supply and demand problem. He draws on his background in supply chain logistics: it’s a distribution problem. Food exists. The challenge is getting it from where it’s being wasted to where it’s needed. Efficiently, at scale, without a fleet of trucks or a warehouse.
In a 2025 feature, Thomson Reuters’ Context platform reported on how Tepperman uses Food Rescue Hero to decentralize food transportation and coordinate a growing network of donors and volunteers across the city without a fleet of drivers or a physical office. (Context/Thomson Reuters, 2025)
Chicago Food Rescue is completely free to donors and recipients. It runs on grants and donations, with rescues available on a recurring or one-time basis. That accessibility is core to the equity model.
“It's designed to increase food access and decentralize distribution so that food is actually available where people are. But more than that, it's about equity.”
Jake TeppermanExecutive Director, Chicago Food Rescue
The numbers
Chicago Food Rescue launched in September 2024. By the close of 2025, the organization had rescued more than 200,000 pounds of food for Chicagoans in need, establishing CFR as one of the fastest-growing new partners in the Food Rescue Hero network.
An earlier milestone, captured by Chi Hack Night in late 2024, put the count at 125,000 pounds across 600+ rescues, preventing the equivalent of 415,000 car miles worth of CO2 emissions. The pace has only accelerated since.
Thomson Reuters’ Context platform also noted that in less than a year of using the app, Chicago Food Rescue had diverted the equivalent of 88,000 meals from landfills to Chicagoans in need. Read the full feature
Time saved, reinvested in mission
Jake estimates the Food Rescue Hero platform saves the equivalent of at least one skilled, full-time staff member per week. That time would otherwise go toward scheduling, volunteer communication, and manual logistics tracking. That time gets reinvested into relationship-building: with community partners, food donors, and the volunteers who make each rescue happen.
“Without Food Rescue Hero, we wouldn't be able to rescue nearly as much food as we have. It's made growing and scaling food rescue possible.”
Jake TeppermanExecutive Director, Chicago Food Rescue
What Food Rescue Hero made possible
Chicago Food Rescue launched with no office, no fleet, and no warehouse. What Jake had was the Food Rescue Hero platform, a clear view of the logistics problem, and years of experience watching food rescue operations succeed and fail. The platform provided the operational infrastructure that would have otherwise required significant staff investment to build manually.
In under 15 months, Chicago Food Rescue crossed 200,000 pounds rescued and 600+ completed rescues, while preventing the equivalent of 415,000 car miles of CO2 emissions. The app handled real-time dispatch and coordination throughout. Jake didn’t scale headcount to scale impact. The platform scaled with him. That’s the model.
What volunteers say
Real-time instructions (where to go, what to pick up, where to deliver) remove the friction that makes volunteering feel complicated. The feedback from CFR’s community reflects that:
“WOOOOOOO. This was a great experience!”
“Easy and quick!”
“The [food] was more than enough. You were able to help with today’s event as well as yesterday’s group session. We really appreciate you!”
Jake has been elevated within the network as a resource for others: co-leading webinars on donor engagement and appearing on the opening panel of Food Rescue Hero’s 2025 annual conference alongside other food rescue founders.
Research backing the model
The impact isn’t just anecdotal. A Stanford University study found the Food Rescue Hero app offered a potential solution to the intersecting crises of food waste and food insecurity. A University of Pittsburgh study found that in areas where the platform was deployed, food insecurity significantly decreased and people had healthier diets.
Covered in depth by Thomson Reuters’ Context platform: full feature here
CBS Chicago segment: watch here Learn more: chicagofoodrescue.org
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