WHAT IS FOOD RECOVERY?
Food Recovery is the heart of Food For Free’s work. Our Logistics Specialists pick up nutritious food that would otherwise be thrown away from establishments like grocery stores and wholesale distributors and redistribute it to partner locations serving food-insecure individuals—homeless shelters, community food pantries, and more.
Our Food Recovery program prioritizes whole foods, focusing on fresh fruits and vegetables, proteins, and prepared meals. Through this program we provide our neighbors with good nutrition and dignity while helping reduce food waste. Many of our Food Recovery program recipient partners transform this food into community meals, directly supporting people experiencing homelessness and food insecurity.
WHY FOOD RECOVERY?
Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year—approximately 1.3 billion tons—gets lost or wasted. In the United States, 30-40% of food is wasted while high levels of food insecurity persist. In Massachusetts, 40% of adults experience food insecurity.
Meanwhile, smaller food pantries that are well-positioned to be an access point for community members facing nutrition insecurity face several challenges to providing access to fresh food for their guests.
Lack of infrastructure and size constraints may cause them to struggle to find transportation solutions to retrieve healthy food from potential food donors like grocery stores.
That’s where our Food Recovery program comes in. Food For Free’s team is equipped with logistics expertise and a fleet of vehicles that can move healthy food from donor locations with excess to points in the community where it can make the most positive impact.
As one of the first food recovery organizations in the nation, we have built a robust network of food donors and food access partners over the past four decades, and we are uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between waste and want through Food Recovery.
We also recover individually packaged and bulk prepared foods from university dining halls and corporate cafeterias. We distribute these items to community colleges and organizations that operate meal programs. This approach not only diverts high-quality food from going to waste, but also reduces the time and labor meal sites need to serve their guests.
FAST FACTS
- We distribute recovered food to 30 food programs in Boston (Allston, Beacon Hill, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Roxbury), Cambridge, Chelsea, and Somerville.
- We recover and distribute over 1.7 million pounds of surplus food in a year.
- 46% of recovered food was fresh produce in 2024.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
- If you would like to discuss ways to collaborate with Food For Free, get in touch with our team: info@foodforfree.org.
- If you are interested in corporate sponsorship for the Food Recovery program, please contact our Development team.
Interested in donating food? Click here to visit our Food Donation page.
"The traditional food pantry model where guests receive a bag of canned and packaged foods that don’t look like the items sold in the supermarket doesn’t really work. In some cases, people donate items that they received from another food pantry, which is counterproductive. Food For Free provides us with a variety of items that people are excited to take home and that meet their dietary needs and preferences. For example, if someone has diabetes or high blood pressure, we have options that are appropriate. This not only helps us to fulfill an immediate need but also helps us to minimize waste of donated food that might otherwise be discarded.”