Food Rescue
While most of the food we rescue comes from regular donors that we visit every week—or even every day—there’s something special about those once-a-year events we collect from. For our team, it’s nice break in routine and a chance to work with new food and new donors. For our recipients, these events can bring some special treats. This month, Ryan and the Ops Team rescued food from both the New England Food Show and the Seafood Expo North America.
As we continue to expand Family Meals, finding new corporate partners with surplus prepared food has become a priority. We’re pleased to announce that Goodwin Proctor and Partners Healthcare have both begun donating prepared food from their corporate campuses. We look forward to working with both companies.
Needham Public Schools has also begun donating prepared food from their school cafeterias.
Family Meals
Soup! In an expansion of our already awesome food-rescue partnership with Harvard University, we’re now working together to add a new kind of food: single-serving cups of soup. Following a successful pilot, student volunteers at Harvard are packaging soup in individual cups. The students have started packaging soup at one dining hall, and hope to expand this work to others soon.
We typically try to get rescued prepared food—like Family Meals—to populations that don’t have their own kitchens, or that face other barriers to cooking for themselves. Our hope is that individual cups of frozen soup will be appealing and useful to more of these recipients.
School Markets
Our program and operations staff delivered extra food to our School Markets in January and February to help families weather the government shutdown. For many who depend on government supports like SNAP, the shutdown was an extra stressor in late winter, which can already be a difficult time of year.
Upcoming Presentations
On April 4, Sasha will be on a panel at Harvard’s Small Change Big Impact Food Summit talking about food waste and food security. (Note that attendance for this event is by invitation only.)
On May 16, Sasha will present at the Center for Sustainable Enterprise and Regional Competitiveness at UMass Boston as part of the event Business Opportunities in Advancing Sustainable Lifestyles in Greater Boston. Among other topics, she’ll be talking about food rescue as a strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
A Great Holiday Fundraiser
A big shout-out to Alexandria Real Estate Equities, who featured Food For Free in their Holiday Donation Drive. A long time supporter of Food For Free’s work, Alexandria Real Estate really kicked it up this year, promoting Food For Free to their own vendors and encouraging them to donate. More than two dozen businesses participated. Thank you, Michelle, Noelle, and everyone at Alexandria Real Estate!
Volunteer Groups
We get lots of great volunteers at our programs. In particular, the last three months have seen some wonderful corporate groups join us for Family Meals and for the Somerville Backpack Program. We’d like to give a big wave and a hearty thank you to Life Science Cares, which brought groups to both of these programs over the last few months.
We also grateful to our wonderful, hardworking volunteers from Capital One, Moderna, and Endurance International Group, all of whom volunteered for the Somerville Backpack Program. On behalf of the kids of Somerville, thank you all!
If you’d like to bring a group from your business, or from a community group, please fill out a volunteer form. Fiona and her team will get in touch!
Recent Grants
- Life Science Cares has renewed their generous support of Family Meals
- Cambridge Community Foundation and The Roy A. Hunt Foundation are supporting Food Rescue
Food For Free In the news!
PBS Newshour ran a piece on Food For Free’s work rescuing food from university dining halls and Family Meals distribution to college campuses
