PALM HARBOR, Fla. — When food at a grocery store doesn’t sell or isn’t cooked at a restaurant, it likely ends up in a landfill.

360 Eats is a nonprofit food rescue service that is cutting down on food waste. The nonprofit is expanding its reach and dishing up nutrition through a new mobile food truck. 

Head Chef Ellen Macleish routinely recovers boxes of food from area restaurants and grocery stores.

She sorts out what can be used for composting in gardens and farms, and weighs all that can be saved. 

“It’s also a great educational reference point to illustrate how much food is going to waste,” Chef Macleish said about weighing each item. 

To avoid waste, the former sou chef turns the ingredients into nutritious meals.  

“That’s my career, and I left it to do this full time,” she added. 

It’s a family affair. Ellen’s son, Cameron, founded 360 Eats after seeing dumpster divers looking for food during his travels. 

Ellen soon joined him in the effort, and that leap of faith is paying off. 

Since they opened in 2019, 360 Eats has served 17,500 meals to those dealing with food insecurity, rescued 62,500 pounds of good food and turned 18,500 pounds of food scraps into compost. 

The nonprofit’s new food truck will advance that mission by bringing this resource to new communities they have not been able to reach before.  

“We’re gonna fill in the gaps and be able to get to those people,” she said. 

Ellen says the natural food movement in the 1970s changed how she saw food. Since she started cooking professionally, it’s been her goal to use food to help people and what once was a vision is now reality.

“I’m sorry, I’m getting a little emotional,” she said. “I’m just thinking about how good this truck is and what we do on it will do for our community.” 

This project allows her to merge her love of cooking and serving others. 

“Feeding people feels good. Keeping food out of the landfill feels good,” she chuckled.  

With each meal, she says she hopes to fix a food system she believes is broken. 

It’s a triple win — collecting excess, getting it to hungry people and reducing waste.

360 Eats' food truck launch event and fundraiser is Saturday, Oct. 15, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Clearwater. Find more details here.