Food For Free prides itself on improving access to healthy and desirable foods for everyone in our community, especially low-income populations and people facing barriers to adequate nutrition. As a result, we are dedicated to working with local partners who address not just hunger, but the many complex interrelated challenges that relate to food insecurity, such as health, safety, and housing.
Just last month, the Cambridge Chronicle reported that homelessness in Cambridge rose by 18.5 percent over the past eight years—from 340 individuals in 2010, to 403 in 2018. The problem is part of a statewide trend created by rising housing costs, stagnant wages, and shrinking federal housing assistance. In addition to this, the lasting effects of poverty, trauma, racism, and inequitable access to education, job training, and basic needs services—such as nutrition and healthcare—also contribute to this issue.
One of the amazing local organizations that steps in to address this problem is On The Rise, a day shelter in Cambridge dedicated to getting women in crisis access to safety, resources, and support so that they can transition out of homelessness. Since 1995, On The Rise’s mission has been to serve chronically homeless women through holistic, relationship-based programs and services that address both immediate and long-term needs. Each year, they help nearly 450 women.
As a part of this work, every day On The Rise’s Safe Haven provides on-site access for an average of 35 women to daytime shelter, clothing, computers with internet access, phones, mail, and a place to get showered and do laundry. They also provide breakfast, lunch, and access to a food pantry for the women making use of their services.
This is where Food For Free fits into the picture. For several years, we’ve been working with On The Rise to keep them stocked with fresh, nutritious food for the women who make use of their day services. Every week, our Food Rescue and Distribution program delivers 100-200 pounds of fruits, vegetables, ready-to-eat sandwiches and salads, as well as some desserts.
In February, we began a brand new collaboration with On The Rise that we’re very excited about. We are now delivering 30 Family Meals to On The Rise each month, which they are able to distribute along with the other food items available through their food pantry. They are also able to keep a few on hand to give out to clients when the need arises.
“For years, Food For Free has been an esteemed partner of On The Rise helping us to provide essential food support to hundreds of homeless and formerly-homeless women in our Safe Haven,” says Delphene Mooney, the Director of Development and Communications for On The Rise. “Last month, we began receiving Family Meal packages from Food For Free in part to help fill food benefit gaps in the aftermath of the government shutdown. These additional resources filled a critical need, and we will continue to offer them to women who come to our door in a food crisis.”
Our Family Meals program, which launched in 2016, uses surplus food rescued through our Prepared Foods Rescue program, and repackages it into appetizing, nutritionally balanced single-serving meals. We then redistribute these heat-and-eat meals to folks experiencing food insecurity who have limited access to kitchens or face other barriers to cooking for themselves.
From our Family Meals kitchen, located at the Belmont-Watertown United Methodist Church in Watertown, staff and volunteers packaged and distributed roughly 25,000 microwaveable meals last year. This helps to redirect perfectly good bulk food—often leftover from corporate cafeterias and college dining halls—to people in the Greater Boston Area who need it.
We are thrilled to be bringing Family Meals to On The Rise and the women they serve, and to be continuing our partnership with an organization that meets such a critical need in our community.
