Everyday Action (EDA) is reallocating food waste from film and TV sets, directing it toward food-insecure residents of the greater metropolitan area. The Los Angeles-based nonprofit aims to address food insecurity, reduce the industry’s carbon footprint, create tax benefits, and shrink landfills.

After years of working in the film industry, Hillary Cohen and Samantha Luu noticed a problem: the massive amounts of food thrown away after film shoots. They were troubled by this waste given that an estimated 16 percent of city residents live in poverty, according to the U.S. census, and Housing Anywhere reports that the cost of living in Los Angeles is double the national average. Cohen and Luu knew there had to be a solution.

“It’s a problem that can be solved, and it needs to be solved,” Cohen tells Food Tank.

Cohen and Luu founded Everyday Action in the fall of 2020, just months after the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. The organization takes donated leftover food from film and TV sets, corporate events, grocery stores, and more, reallocating it to food-insecure beneficiaries across a 90-mile area. Its drivers are typically film-industry professionals who need supplemental income.

“I think that food reallocation is a solution to hunger in America, and it’s just going to become more and more prevalent as time goes,” Cohen says. According to Feeding America, about 42 billion kilograms of food is wasted every year. By distributing food that would otherwise be thrown away, EDA works to reduce both food waste and hunger.

The process of reallocation, though, can be challenging, Cohen says. Donors can be wary of the legality of donating food. “In the beginning, we were just trying to convince people that it’s okay to give away gourmet food that you yourself would keep eating. You know, it’s worse to throw it out,” explains Cohen.

Read the full article about film industry food waste by Vincent Leggett at Food Tank.