Food For Free provides support to community partners for food distribution in local cities hardest hit by the COVID crisis.

Cambridge, MA (May 8th, 2020)– Food For Free, the Cambridge-based, non-profit organization dedicated to providing every member of the Greater Boston community with reliable access to fresh and nutritious food, announced today that it is expanding its COVID-19 relief efforts to support four additional towns in the Greater Boston area. These newest efforts are beginning this month, in the form of assisting hunger-relief agencies in Chelsea, Lynn, Revere, and Waltham. 

“When the crisis hit in March, we started our COVID relief food delivery program in Cambridge.  While our Food Rescue program continues to serve programs in ten Greater Boston cities, we want to expand our support in cities hardest hit by the crisis. Working with The Greater Boston Food Bank and Project Bread, we identified community partners in Chelsea, Lynn, Revere, and Waltham,” said Sasha Purpura, Food For Free’s Executive Director. “Food For Free is best known as the area’s first food rescue organization but purchasing food has always been a tool that we use to address local hunger. Thanks to funding from the Greater Boston Food Bank and a generous donation from the Popplestone Foundation, we are helping bolster other anti-hunger organizations working in local cities hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis.” 

Starting May 1st, and continuing throughout the month of June, Food For Free is allocating $25,000 per city to purchase food for community partners to distribute in Chelsea, Lynn, Revere, and Waltham. In Chelsea, Food For Free is working with the Salvation Army to pay for wholesale orders of shelf-stable grocery items that residents need such as rice, beans, and pasta. In Lynn, Food For Free will support purchases of shelf-stable grocery wholesale orders for the Salvation Army and local YMCA to distribute to residents. In Revere and Waltham, Food For Free will purchase wholesale produce for delivery to the Revere Crisis Response and Healthy Waltham to dispense within their communities. 

Food For Free will contract the Boston Area Gleaners to assist in these deliveries. “Our expansion into these hard hit areas is possible because of the extraordinary generosity of Food For Free’s donors and the wonderful collaborative spirit of Greater Boston’s nonprofit sector”, says Food For Free’s Development Director, Michelle Holcomb. 

ABOUT FOOD FOR FREE

Food For Free is a Cambridge-based, non-profit organization dedicated to providing the Greater Boston community with reliable access to fresh and nutritious food. Food For Free accomplishes its mission through food rescue, partnerships with schools, colleges, and community food programs, and our own direct service programs. In 2019, Food For Free distributed more than two million pounds of nutritious food to more than 30,000 people throughout Greater Boston. To learn more, please visit us at http://www.foodforfree.org/, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.