Every year in January, we do what many of you probably do in your personal lives: we look back, reflect, and see how we did.

Well, this year when we looked back at our numbers, we were a teeny bit shocked—but in a good way! We knew we had increased our food rescue substantially, but even we were surprised to see just how much:

We are pleased to announce that we doubled our food rescue in 2014. (!!!)

In 2013, our Food Rescue & Delivery program diverted (a.k.a. rescued) 722,000 lbs of food from the waste stream.

In 2014, we rescued over 1.3 million lbs through the same program—double our previous year’s rescue!

Last year, “over a million” was our exciting total for this program—well, this year, we were “over 1.5 million,” with our Food Rescue & Delivery Programs distributing a total of 1,594,432 lbs of fresh, healthy, perfectly good food in 2014*—an increase of more than 50% in one year!

*In addition to rescued food, we also source food for this program from the Greater Boston Food Bank and purchase from produce wholesalers. This ensures a steady year-round supply for our recipients.

So where did all of this additional food come from?

Well, we have a few big contenders:

• Our new Prepared Foods Rescue program.
  • We now pick up prepared foods from 14 Harvard dining halls!
  • Whole Foods is now donating hot bar prepared foods from all Food For Free partner locations!
• A new(ish) Whole Foods…the Beacon Street location!
• Our new weekend pickup partnership. Now we operate 7 days a week instead of 5!

We’re also serving 108 food programs (up from 85) in 12 Greater Boston cities (up from 8).

We’re especially glad to have added cities with a high need for emergency food services: Lynn, Malden, and Lowell.

How were we able to take on such growth? Well…

Over the last year, we’ve expanded our capacity dramatically by hiring our first-ever Operations Director and adding a van to our fleet.

This would not have have been possible without the committed support of our donors.

You’ve helped us grow into a fiscally strong organization over the years—which is good, because we expect to continue to grow in 2015!

To every person, foundation, business, and fellow nonprofit that contributes to Food For Free’s work, we thank you heartily. You make this work possible. Onward and upward—and here’s to a growth-filled 2015!