Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Omar Tarabishi. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Omar, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
Toward the end of 2023, I felt stuck at my current job. I was doing the same job for about 4 years and wanted some change. I started having some conversations about possible raises/promotions and senior leadership didn’t have a future plan for me. I decided that you can’t wait for change to happen, but that you have to take matters into your own hands. Sure the comfortable salary, international travel and benefits were amazing but to do the same job over and over year after year started to get redundant. I didn’t see the change and impact that I wanted to make in the world reflected over the last 4 years. I had slowly been growing this idea of a local food rescue organization since Summer 2021, jotting down notes, brainstorming and sharing the idea with friends and family. At this point, I had an epiphany, the moment is now, if not, it may never come at all.
In January 2024 we incorporated the organization, in February we received 501c3 status and in March I decided to leave my full-time job and lean in, helping grow a food rescue organization called Leftover Love. If you feel you are onto something and you have a great idea, you can’t keep putting it off and saying “tomorrow” or “next week” or “next year”. There is no better time than the present. My wife and I knew that we wanted to have kids and I knew I couldn’t make a decision like this when the baby was here. Taking a risk is scary, but if you believe in something, and you find a gap that can be filled by providing a service to society, it may be worth following.
Now in 2025 we’ve completed our first fiscal year, and we’re so proud to say that we’ve rescued over 55,000 lbs in our first inaugural year. Our target for 2024 was 20,000 lbs, but the momentum of news, media, volunteers, friends and neighbors helped us grow exponentially. Each article that came out talking about us resulted in more donations, each volunteer that saw the amount of food they were rescuing with their own eyes was enlightening and helped bring on more people who wanted to do good in their community. The result, was helping the community in need here in Baltimore and giving back in a way so that everyone in the city can enjoy food that’s made in the city; local Baltimore Businesses giving back to the Baltimore community in need.
Omar, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I identify as a Muslim Arab American, and part of my religion is fasting for the month of Ramadan. It’s a time when Muslims fast from sunup to sundown, without having any food or drink, not even water. Part of the idea is to understand what those less fortunate feel, and it’s a reminder of what we take for granted. Things like snacking, a bottle of water, a sip, a granola bar, most have access to so much but what if we took stock of what we have excess of and shared with our local community in need. So during Ramadan over the years, it’s been really frustrating to see people wasting perfectly good food that could be donated to those that could use it. When I think of the community in need here in Baltimore I think of the unhoused, those struggling with addiction, veterans, immigrants, refugees and those whose circumstances we’re unaware of. We shouldn’t judge or hold food for this community over another, free food should be accessible to anyone who needs it.
Leftover Love is a 501c3 food rescue organization that helps relocate leftover fresh food at close of business to the community in need. We do this by partnering with cafes, restaurants and bakeries to pick-up their leftover fresh food and get it to other nonprofits that serve the community in need. You can think of us more so as a logistics and transportation nonprofit, as we do not distribute the food but provide it to another nonprofit that does. The community in need is already familiar with some of these nonprofits so we aim to supplement their food distribution efforts with food from local businesses in or around the city.
What sets us apart from other nonprofits is that we focus on ready to eat food, things that are grab and go. We don’t focus on grocery products that require you to have a fully equipped kitchen. We think that there is a “kitchen gap” and there are assumptions made when you provide the community in need cans that must be opened, produce that must be chopped and other products that require electricity, utensils and other things that they may not have. We are proud that we don’t have an HQ, we’re proud that we don’t offer a food distribution date/time and location because we help compliment the fantastic efforts already going on in the city by more established and recognized nonprofits.
Our slogan is Donate, Volunteer, Connect, meaning Leftover Love can benefit for any one of the three. We all have a little leftover love to give, whether it’s time, energy, donations or even connections for our next food donor or food recipient organization. We can all do a little more to give back to our community.
How’d you meet your business partner?
My wife (co-founder of Leftover Love) and I met in Boston, MA back in Dec 2016. She was doing her MA at BC and I was working as an international cost-of-living surveyor for a small data research company. We actually met salsa dancing, and the rest they say is history. It’s unbelievable to think that just striking up a conversation with someone has resulted in us traveling the world, getting married, purchasing a home and now having a baby.
First and foremost, we have very similar values and ways of living our lives. We feel that we all have a duty to give back to those less fortunate, and with her roots in social justice spending time in remote parts of Ecuador, this has always been something important to her. I’ve spent a lot of time going back and forth to Egypt, seeing family and friends, and the level of poverty is incomparable to what we see here in the US. Helping out has always been something I’ve seen demonstrated by my parents and grandparents and it’s important for us as a couple to continue this tradition of giving back. We are thankful and blessed to have what we have but our values haven’t changed. I’m lucky to have found someone over 8 years ago that has the same values as me, not putting profit and money over everything, and understanding quality and satisfaction of life is more important than 6 figure salaries and flashy expensive things.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
It doesn’t take much to do good in your local city. Leftover Love, Inc. is a 501c3 food rescue organization that was incorporated in January 2024. With the help of MD Nonprofits, we were able to file the appropriate paperwork for a fee and shortly after the next month, received our 501c3 status. I personally don’t drink, and I joke with my friends that that has been a blessing so that I’m able to save a bit of money per month on the side. With our savings, we were able to start the initial expenses for Leftover Love like creating our website, purchasing t-shirts, and small hand luggage scales to weigh the food. Once launching amongst our social circles, generous donations poured in as well as a small grant from a local foundation that helped us hit the ground running. In 2024, we didn’t raise more than 18,000 USD but we were able to rescue over 55,000 lbs of food. You don’t need much to do good in your city, you just need to have the right mentors, partnerships, and for people to guide you in the right direction for the next step in your journey.
Now after completing our first fiscal year, we are eligible for more grant funding with our 990 tax form. This will help us increase capital to grow in 2025 and hit our goal of over 84,000 lbs of rescued food.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.leftoverloveinc.org
- Instagram: @leftoverloveinc
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/leftoverloveinc
