How our Cincinnati studio is helping to fight food insecurity

Soon after our Cincinnati studio was established, the team started doing something quietly remarkable. After food and beverage shoots, rather than letting perfectly good product go to waste, they’d take it to local food banks instead.

Over time, it became clear that the team would benefit from some extra support. That’s when our US Director of Photography Damien Thompson was introduced to Last Mile Food Rescue, a Cincinnati-based non-profit that connects surplus food with the people who need it most. Since 2019, the studio has been working with Last Mile in a partnership that has helped feed thousands of people while diverting food from landfill, significantly reducing carbon emissions.

How it works

Last Mile operates through a network of volunteers. When we have excess food from a shoot, we notify the organisation and they connect us with a volunteer who comes directly to collect it. Depending on how busy our shoot schedule is, that might mean a weekly pickup or a fortnightly one. It’s a simple, streamlined system that makes doing the right thing easy.

The food we donate is predominantly non-perishable: frozen goods, dry goods, everything from jars of pasta sauce to bags of frozen waffles. Food safety is always the priority. Our team operates with care, wearing gloves and separating ingredients hygienically during shoots to ensure anything left over is in suitable condition to be donated. On occasion, we also encourage team members to take food home rather than let it go to waste – when our freezer fills up before we have an opportunity to donate, for example. As Damien says, it’s remarkable how much food passes through a busy studio, and how much of it could otherwise end up in landfill.

Once collected, the food travels through Last Mile’s network to food banks and non-profit organisations across Cincinnati, where it’s provided to individuals and families experiencing food insecurity, preventing it from going into landfill.

None of this happens without the daily commitment of our studio team. Jose, Riley and Michael all play a vital role, making sure food is stored correctly after shoots, that nothing spoils unnecessarily, and that everything is ready for collection in the best possible condition. It’s a small but meaningful part of the daily rhythm of our studio.

The impact

This year, Last Mile shared their first annual donor impact report for our studio, and the numbers are genuinely inspiring. In 2025, our Cincinnati team rescued 3,000 pounds of food, equivalent to 2,499 meals for people in need. And by donating that food rather than sending it to landfill, we prevented an estimated 9,090 pounds of carbon emissions.

Part of something bigger

This initiative sits alongside other sustainability efforts taking shape in our Cincinnati studio. The team has recently introduced a collection process for hard-to-recycle materials, including the considerable quantities of Styrofoam we accumulate each week (“enough to build a small igloo”, according to Damien), further reducing our environmental footprint and contributing to our broader ESG goals as a company.

It all adds up. And it’s a reminder that even within a creative industry, where so much of what we produce lives on a shelf or a screen, there are real, tangible ways to give back to the communities we’re part of.

As Damien puts it: “The dollar doesn’t go anywhere near as far as it used to. There are clearly so many people who can benefit from a free meal. This is just one small, meaningful thing we can do to connect with – and contribute to the health of – our community here in Cincinnati.”

We couldn’t agree more. To learn more about Last Mile, visit https://lastmilefood.org/