I had the privilege this year of working as a volunteer fellow with Food For Free through Young Adult Volunteers, a national service corps of the Presbyterian Church. By spending each day at a different one of Food For Free’s programs, I got to learn alongside coordinators and volunteers, and get to know how the organization responds to hunger relief needs in this community.

Each of my weeks at Food For Free started with a Food Rescue route, Food For Free’s longest running operation that delivered close to 2 million pounds of food this year. For the first couple hours each Monday morning, our driver Santana and I picked up food from 5 different supermarkets, and in the afternoon we emptied the truck at agencies across Cambridge, Somerville, Arlington, and Boston.

One of the biggest challenges to consider was making sure each of these organizations received the kinds of food that best suited the service they provide. Schools and childcare agencies were looking for kid-friendly fruits and snacks, drop-in centers needed prepared salads and sandwiches, and meal programs often took vegetables that could be prepared and served efficiently. Each agency has a different approach to hunger relief and other social services, and fortunately we rescued such a variety of food that we could prioritize the needs of our partners.

Our process of food rescue was one lens through which I saw the intentional efforts of the other Food For Free programs I helped out with this year. The Family Meals program, Home Delivery, and School Markets all take specific approaches to expanding food access by prioritizing the needs of a certain population. For Family Meals, individual frozen meals are useful to those who don’t have the time or equipment to cook. Home delivery of fresh produce and groceries helps those who are inhibited physically from getting to and from a pantry. And a free produce market inside a school building helps the school serve families without the stigma of singling-out people in need.

I truly appreciate the experience I had of working for an organization that operates each program with a sense of purpose, and becoming aware of the space that Food For Free occupies in a much larger system of hunger relief in the region.