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Glastonbury native Hillary Cohen, who has been named a 2025 CNN Hero of the Year finalist, had a big idea around food insecurity and founded a nonprofit to help solve the food crisis. The 40-year-old entrepreneur co-founded the nonprofit Every Day Action back in 2020. The nonprofit, which is based in Los Angeles, donates leftover food from film sets that was not eaten to those in need across the city. Cohen said the idea first started back in 2009 when she was working on a film set and saw large amounts of food being thrown away. “I kind of immediately got this idea in my head and started asking why so much perfectly good food was being thrown away,” Cohen said. “The explanation I was always given was that’s just the way it is. I was even told that it couldn’t be donated out of caution for safety or liability issues. But the idea never really left me.” Cohen, who grew up in Glastonbury, moved out to Los Angeles after attending Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, to pursue her dream of working in Hollywood. She quickly worked her way up to being a Directors Guild of America assistant director on several film sets and popular TV shows like “The Office,” she said. “A lot of film sets are often catered, we’re talking huge operations where they bring in trucks of food and cook it sometimes on-site,” Cohen said. “The food is very high quality and we’re talking things like steak, seafood, various entrees, appetizers and desserts. During a film shoot, often times you can smell the food cooking that is being catered. “We would be in neighborhoods where we were filming right next to people who were unhoused. I thought it was so unfair to literally smell this delicious food knowing these folks could not access it. Can you imagine being hungry and having to smell food cooking while not being able to eat it?” she added. When the COVID pandemic hit in 2020, most of Hollywood filming was shut down. Out of work and not knowing what the future held, Cohen said she decided to pursue her dream of running a nonprofit to help solve the growing hunger crisis in Los Angeles. Along with her friend and colleague Samantha Luu, they began researching if it was possible to donate food from film sets to those in need. “We quickly found out that it is totally legal to donate unused and uneaten food, in fact there are laws saying you can do just that,” Cohen said. “When we learned that, we started our nonprofit and began asking film studios if we could take any unused food on film sets. The response was overwhelmingly positive. Now we actually have several contracts with major film studios.” Over the last five years, Cohen said that her nonprofit has been able to donate nearly 200,000 pounds of food to people in need across the city. The nonprofit has also quickly expanded its scope, taking unused food from business events, conferences and events around the city, she said. Every Day Action covers a roughly 90-mile radius around both the downtown and Los Angeles County ensuring thousands of people don’t go hungry. “There is so much need right now, especially with folks who are having their SNAP benefits withheld,” Cohen said. “The need has just gotten so great since when I first started working in Hollywood. I remember being on film sets and seeing a Lamborghini next to a tent with an unhoused person. But even people who are not unhoused are also dealing with food insecurity.” Now Cohen said she is hoping that being named a finalist for the 2025 CNN Hero of the Year will give her nonprofit a major boost. The prestigious honor recognizes everyday heroes “whose selfless actions and inspiring work change the world,” according to CNN. The winner of the award, chosen by community votes, is awarded a $100,000 prize to their nonprofit. Cohen is one of just five finalists from around the country vying for the title. Other finalists are helping turn vacant lots into eco-friendly flower farms, setting up shelters for large scale animal abuse cases and developing creative writing programs to help incarcerated people share stories and process trauma. “That money would be so helpful as it would allow us to be fully funded,” Cohen said. “This will fund our 2025 budget to completion — a goal we have never reached since founding. I’m asking Connecticut residents to support me in this goal because it is where I call home and where I grew up. It would mean so much to have support from my home state.” Anyone can vote for the 2025 CNN Hero of the Year winner at heroes.votenow.tv. According to the contest rules, you can vote up to 10 times per day. Anyone who shares their votes to Facebook with the voting link can double their daily votes. Voting ends Nov. 30, and the winner will be revealed on a special program called “CNN Heroes An All-Star Tribute” hosted by Anderson Cooper. Stephen Underwood can be reached at sunderwood@courant.com.
