Almost forty years ago, Food For Free started up as the area’s first food rescue organization. Five years ago, we began pioneering the next wave in food rescue–prepared food rescue. It has always been important to Food For Free that our programs meet people where they are, and provide them with food that meets their specific situation. We began work on a solution for individuals and families who may not have the time to cook healthy foods or have access to a kitchen. Food pantries are great, but if you’re living in a dorm or hotel room, working multiple jobs, or you don’t have access to a kitchen, the most accessible and affordable option becomes processed food and fast food. We wanted to provide a healthy alternative.

We know that millions of pounds of prepared food are thrown out daily at universities, hotels, corporations, and more. Working to solve both local food waste and hunger issues, we worked to develop a program that re-purposes prepared foods into single-serving meals. In the summer of 2015, our Family Meals program was officially launched. 

Nutritionally balanced and tasty, every one of our Family Meals includes a serving of vegetables, protein, and grains/starch. Created from prepared food rescued from local university and corporate dining halls, each heat-and-eat meal is a balanced, tasty individual meal for one.

Family Meals has grown significantly in the past four years. Our number of prepared food donors and distribution sites keeps growing. When we started the program, we focused on families in need. Recently, we’ve widened our reach to community colleges to help address growing hunger issues on campuses across the state including Massasoit, Northern Essex Community College, Bunker Hill Community College, and MassBay Community College’s Wellesley Hills campus.

2019 was our biggest year yet for Family Meals. In May, we moved the program to our new food preparation kitchen located on the Biogen Campus in Kendall Square in Cambridge. We are immensely grateful to Biogen for the donation of our new kitchen space which was built and is used exclusively for our Family Meals program. With the support of Life Science Cares, our corporate partners, and our community, we have a continuous flow of volunteers eager to help prepare meals with us.

With all of these new resources in place and ready to go, we began to strategize how we could expand the number of meals we could produce. This fall, Blue Cross Blue Shield awarded us a “Healthy Living Accelerator” grant which gives us the financial resources we need to expand the program. With the help of all of our corporate partners, we now have the capacity to grow our annual meal production from 30,000 to 100,000. 

We know that we’ve got a lot of work to do to make it to 100,000 meals. As we grow, we’re subject to supply and demand issues. As we make more meals, we must find more community partners to distribute them to. As we add on more distribution sites, we’ll need more prepared food donors. Our team has eagerly jumped on this challenge and we look forward to updating you on our progress in the coming year!