Through a combination of food rescue and transportation services, Food For Free gives food programs year-round access to fresh fruits and vegetables, pantry and fridge items, and ready-to-heat meals. Their direct service programs bring food to students, seniors and others most at risk of hunger. Since July 1, 2022, Food For Free has rescued and redistributed over 13,000 pounds of food through their Heat-n-Eats prepared meals program!
When Regina Wu, Newton Food Pantry President, connected with Sam McDermott, Food For Free’s Heat-n-Eats Program Manager, the shared mission and passion was apparent—and the partnership was almost instant. Thanks to Food For Free’s efficient and nimble systems, Sam and his team delivered the first set of Heat-n-Eats meals in August, just weeks after the first connection. Since then, they have delivered 3,360 meals to the Newton Food Pantry!
“Most people think of Newton as affluent, but we were blown away by the number of clients being served weekly at the Newton Food Pantry,” says Sam. The infrastructure and cold storage capacity at the Newton Food Pantry showed that with this partnership, the Heat-n-Eats meals would quickly get into the right hands.
“The Heat-n-Eats program sits at the intersection of food waste and food access,” explains Sam. All the food used to create these meals is rescued. Food For Free volunteers deconstruct and reconstruct rescued food weekly into ready-to-heat meals — some of this activity happens in the donated packing space at Biogen’s Kendall Square headquarters, and some happens directly at the rescue source in university dining halls.
Sam explains that the original focus of the Heat-n-Eats program is to address hunger at adult education centers, which are typically smaller than food pantries. “But having bigger partners like the Newton Food Pantry allows us to build up staff and infrastructure to make meals and support smaller organizations.” At the Newton Food Pantry, we call that a win-win.
We, and our clients, are so grateful for this new partnership with Food For Free.