Campus Kitchen at UMASS Boston

Food For Free… Food For Us!

Some days it seems as though The Campus Kitchen at UMass Boston can only operate by jumping hurdles. I’m certain all new Campus Kitchens face challenges, but we’ve come to pride ourselves on how we overcome fairly large obstacles to keep our spirits up and clients fed. Because of these numerous, continuous, and daily “bumps”, our victories are huge. I mean tears-in-your-eyes, let’s-hug, thank-the-Lord, HUGE. And this week, we’ve had ourselves a victory!

We have officially secured our first food recovery partner, Food For Free. Food For Free “responds to local hunger by rescuing fresh food that might otherwise go to waste and distribute[s] it within the emergency food system where it can reach those in need,” www.foodforfree.org

In other words, Food For Free collects leftover food from local farmers’ markets that wasn’t sold to the public and delivers it in large quantities to other non-profits that can use it. Like us, like us, like us! Starting April 13th, we’ll be receiving 50 pound bags of potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, and apples to incorporate into our weekly grocery bags for our wonderful clients. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be able to work with such a generous and eco-friendly organization. It’s taken us two months to find someone to work with and Mr. David Leslie, Executive Director of Food For Free, is that person. So, thank you, David Leslie, for putting to bed the woes and stress we had here at CKUMB of never finding a food recovery parter. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I must relieve my excitement by crying tears of sheer joy.