The Cincinnati Reds and Delaware North, the official foodservice and retail provider at Great American Ball Park (GABP), have an ongoing partnership with Last Mile Food Rescue to provide free meals to the community.
Earlier this month, Ari Rubin, assistant general manager for Delaware North at the ballpark; Gary Davis, executive chef for Delaware North; and Fernando Cruz, pitcher for the Reds; loaded a car full of produce and snacks to bring to Camp Washington
United Church of Christ.
The donation included 350 pounds of potatoes, sunflower seeds, shredded carrots and other items that are then used to prepare meals.
“We feed 40,000 people a day, and with 10 games in a row, inevitably we have some leftover food,” Rubin said. “A lot of our managers are from here in Cincinnati, so it’s great to be able to give back. We partnered with Last Mile back in 2021, and it’s been a great partnership ever since.”
Every three or four home games, Delaware North collects donations from throughout its operations at GABP to give back to the community and help minimize food waste.
In 2023, the ballpark donated more than 16,000 pounds of food, providing 13,333 meals to neighbors in need.
Last Mile Food Rescue, founded in 2019, has saved more than four million pounds of excess food from the landfill.
“In the U.S., we waste about 40% of the food that we produce every year. Meanwhile, in Cincinnati, over a quarter million of our neighbors don’t know where their next meal is coming from,” said Aaron Moore, senior manager of donor and agency partnerships and programs at Last Mile Food Rescue. “We’ve partnered with food providers such as Great American Ball Park and Delaware North to fill in that food insecurity gap.”
MLB.com featured a video on Delaware North’s partnership with the Reds and Last Mile Food Rescue that will be played at all home games in July as part of the “Reds Country Cares” monthly initiative focused on food insecurity. Local ABC affiliate WCPO 9 also covered the food donation.