"No Ways to Feed those in Need"

Maria Yap

Maria Yap is the founder of Peninsula Food Runners, a food rescue non profit organization that services San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. Maria has been in the food recovery business for the last 9 years. Prior to founding Peninsula Food Runners, she volunteered and solicited donors for San Francisco Food Runners.

Maria is a graduate of the University of Arizona, majoring in Food Service Management and minoring in Nutrition. She is also a professional chef and a graduate of Tante Marie Culinary School.

Maria Yap, with the collaboration of husband Tod Hing, introduced technology to the food recovery business in 2013. Tod, who is a computer Consultant for Stanford University developed the Chow Match App which is presently being used in parts of California, Maryland and jointly soon by Alabama. The technology can be used by Food Bank and Food Rescue groups alike.

Today, the Chow Match App manages nearly 35,000 meals a week with the help of over 350 volunteers. This past March, Peninsula Food Runners diverted over 1.2 million pounds of food from the landfills back into the surrounding feeding programs in communities thus reducing over 1 million lbs of CO2 from the atmosphere.