Creating A Better Tomorrow: Celebrating Our 2022 Nonprofit Partnership!

At Poetica Marketing, we believe in the importance of giving back to the community. That’s why we donate 10 hours of our services every month to deserving nonprofits in the Pittsburgh region. Through 2022, we’ve offered support and guidance to Food Rescue Hero, an outstanding organization focused on solving hunger in Pittsburgh and beyond, and the 2022 Food Rescue Conference! Here’s a recap of what we did together this year!

Getting Started With Food Rescue Hero

When we first approached Food Rescue Hero around the tail end of 2021, we were hoping to support them on a few marketing campaigns throughout 2022. 

Food Rescue Hero is an incredible, forward-thinking technology company that powers 412 Food Rescue, a local organization that connects places with large surpluses of food (like grocery stores and restaurants) with volunteers and individuals who need the food most of all. 

The Food Rescue Hero technology is so impactful that it’s been adopted all over the country, with many other Food Rescues popping up in major cities to assist in solving hunger and improving communities in the process. Through their efforts, they’ve helped rescue more than 100 million pounds of food! 

We knew Food Rescue Hero by reputation—and we were eager to lend any support they needed in their blogging, PR, social media, or general digital marketing efforts (assuming they’d accept our offer). 

What we hadn’t expected was the awesome, incredible ask.

It wasn’t a few organized marketing campaigns they were interested in.

Instead, this ambitious organization had its sights set on hosting a 2022 national conference right here in Pittsburgh—and they wanted help organizing and coordinating it.

We’re always game for big projects, so our answer was a simple one: Let’s do it!

Getting Prepared For the Conference

Throughout 2022, we met with Food Rescue Hero on a monthly basis to set up deadlines and ensure we were constantly moving forward to properly prepare for their October conference. 

Regina (our events coordination and in-house spreadsheet queen) quickly set up numerous Google Sheets to keep us collaborative and organized, while Pat began drumming up copy for landing pages, emails, and social media posts.

Eventually, we even made our way to the East End Cooperative Ministry (where Food Rescue Hero is headquartered and the conference was slated to be held), and Regina drew up floor plans and recommendations on how each room should be used. 

As time progressed and we began receiving marketing assets, we brought in a graphic designer to help assemble resources for email blasts, social media communications, and other platforms. 

When we learned Food Rescue Hero aimed to live stream panels on each day of the conference, we buckled down to find the most cost-effective strategy to connect multiple speakers from around the country while still providing live captioning support—without straining the conference budget!

In the last few weeks leading up to the event, we designed a photo backdrop banner, edited videos to show during the live stream, and coordinated with Wahila Creative to ensure the live stream would render properly on the conference website. 

Then, in October, after some final edits and technology tests, we were ready to hold a conference! 

Attending the Conference

By October 20, everyone was set.

On both days, the Food Rescue Hero team split up to run panels (some of which were watched by dozens of people worldwide), engage with 40+ live conference guests, and coordinate events like the rescued food sampling session at the end of the first day (right before the big dinner). 

While the conference took place down the hall, Pat worked in the Food Rescue Hero office to keep the live stream up and running, assist speakers with tech support, and interact with viewers in the live stream chat. 

Regina, meanwhile, coordinated a rotating cast of volunteers to work with vendors, prepare and clean up meals, and even helped rescue food!

We’re happy to say the entire conference went swimmingly, and feedback from attendees has been incredible!

Here are some of the photos from the event (from Dominique Murray Photography): 

After it was all said and done, we were humbled by these kind words from Rebecca Gaynier, the Head of Marketing for Food Rescue Hero:

Learn More

We’re thrilled to have worked alongside the Food Rescue Hero team!

If you’d like to learn more about us, check out our about page, or look into our events services and content marketing.