Giving Back Every Day

Sam Luu and Hillary Cohen met on the set of NCIS: Los Angeles. Both were assistant directors who had risen through the ranks on other films and television shows.

Among many other commonalities, they quickly discovered they shared a common concern – huge amounts of food waste from location shoots and sets that could go to feed the hungry.

We're not talking about wrapped snacks or cold sandwiches from craft services. We are talking about hot meals ordered from catering and featuring top-quality ingredients like salmon, steak, various types of pasta, grilled chicken and ahi tuna, and their accompaniments like grilled vegetables, truffle mashed potatoes and quinoa - plus all sorts of salads and desserts.

Here is a typical example of how and why such food is wasted. Let's say 100 background actors are needed all day on a shoot but it turns out that they can be let go at 11 a.m. That means that 100 lunches ordered for them are thrown in the trash. Possibly dinners as well. Multiply situations like this by dozens and dozens of productions going on every day and you will get an idea of the massive scope of the problem.

Both Cohen and Luu had been disturbed by it for a decade. When each would question higher-ups about it - often every day - they would be told it was a liability issue to give the food away to anyone else. (In other words, if someone got food poisoning, the production entity could be sued.)

So last spring Cohen created the nonprofit organization Every Day Action with Luu to begin to rectify the problem.

After all, entertainment productions have already made much progress in curbing environmental waste and energy consumption. Why not commission the unused resource of fresh, high-quality food that's left over to help others instead of wasting all of it?

If the only real stumbling block was liability, Every Day Action would contractually take it on.

Cohen and Luu both spoke passionately about their mission, Cohen on the phone and Luu in an email interview.

"Our organization wants people to think about helping others and not the risk against yourself. We kept hearing that we can't help someone else because it would impact us if they get food poisoning," Cohen explains. "What about the person on the other side of that? You're saying my life is more valuable than yours and it's okay to be hungry. At the end of the day, it's another human life. You should look at that."

Luu had witnessed the one-on-one impact when she had given food to people, even seeing one man do a dance of joy upon receiving some hot, freshly-made butter noodles from her.

"For years on set, I would ask why food and meals weren't donated and the 'because we can be sued' answer was the standard reply. When Hillary approached me about starting this during the Covid shutdown last spring, I knew it was finally time to start doing something I'd always enjoyed but on a larger scale," says Luu.

"Hillary and I have both spent over a decade appalled at the amount of food being wasted on sets and the shutdown gave us the time and drive to focus on what we could do about it. If it was all really about liability and that's all that was standing in the way from something being done about it, we both agreed it was worth it."

Every Day Action uses a combination of paid employees and volunteers - about 30 in all currently - who go to sets and studios and then transport the food mainly to homeless shelters and encampments but also to community fridges located across Los Angeles.

They check the production call sheets to determine when to pick up food after meals are served to cast and crew

Pandemic protocols calling for individually-portioned meals actually makes their jobs easier than carting large trays of food from sets, although they do that as well.

At the beginning, as their concept was taking shape and they had formed a 501(c)(3) entity, one producer gave them a chance.

"We picked up breakfast and did the same with dinner, garnering 175 meals in just the first two days," Cohen says. "We pick up at six sets, which equals 1,000 meals a week. Our goal is to pick up at every set from Santa Clarita to San Pedro, a distance of about 90 miles."

"We lovingly call our volunteers 'food ninjas' because of the stealth and precision in the way we coordinate and handle pick-up of the food," adds Luu. "We've had other assistant directors, actors, stand-ins, background actors and crew members volunteer for us."

Another goal is to have a food truck in downtown LA and to distribute hot meals directly from it to those in need. Expansion to production hubs in other cities is also envisioned by Cohen, Luu and their board of directors.

"We have connections through our board and our experience," says Cohen, who says they already have acquired some interesting donations. "A food stylist found us, and they had an entire truck filled with 400 cans of beans. At one show, there were 85 containers of soup. We have the silliest of stories. We'll pick up from anyone who calls. I feel like we're food rescuers. We just got a [television] commercial client. We're on call for them."

Every Day Action is already receiving high marks across the board. "I cannot tell you how many people have taken a moment to send messages or talk to us to tell us how thankful they are that someone has finally decided to do something about the food waste issue in our industry. Some have started reallocating food waste on their own because they were inspired by what we've started," Luu says.

Yet food waste is much more than an industry issue. It's global. A recent United Nations report indicated the world wastes more than 1 billion tons of food every year, or 19% of the food available to consumers in 2019. It's a hard number to swallow, in light of the fact that more than 690 million people worldwide go hungry each year.

The majority of food waste – 61% – occurs at the household level, while retail establishments and restaurants are responsible for most of the rest.

In the United States, it is estimated that as much as 40% of the nation's food supply ends up in the garbage, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

So what can individuals and families do to stem that tide and to help mitigate hunger in their communities? Cohen and Luu have some specific action items.

"You can reallocate on your own, it doesn't take anything other than willingness and a small amount of effort. Try buying only what you need for groceries. Perhaps clean out your fridge and pantry once a month or every two months, and take those items to your local community fridge, food pantry, or shelter.

"I think you'll find you have far more food than you think that you don't and won't consume. Someone will be thrilled to have that soup you've had sitting on the shelf for months now," says Luu. "Throw out as little as possible in your household. I also encourage people to get the whole household involved. Empowering those around us, especially future generations, is crucial for long-term change."

"Buy an extra taco, get an extra dessert, order an extra burger, only eat one of those pizzas you got in that "2-for-1 deal" and hand that to the first person you encounter who is in need.

"When you are in a drive through and see someone in need, buy an extra meal for them. When you dine out, order an extra meal and hand it to that person you didn't make eye contact with earlier so they wouldn't ask you for change," Cohen says. "Helping others and eliminating food waste is easy. It is about opening your eyes to the issue in the first place that is the greater problem."