After the rescue: with Lifeboat Boston

What happens to the food Lovin’ Spoonfuls rescues? Find out here as we see what happens during and after distribution to one of our nonprofit partners, Lifeboat Boston, a food pantry located at Boston Temple Church.

Throughout the day, our Food Rescue Coordinators (FRCs) pick up good food that would otherwise go to waste from various food vendors. This box of beautifully ripe cantaloupes and apples is just one example of what our FRCs brought to Lifeboat.

Once at Lifeboat, our FRCs set up a ramp with wheels that makes unloading the truck a breeze. Pictured here is FRC, Abby, with a Lifeboat volunteer.

Here, Abby continues to send each box of food down the ramp and through the window to Nancy Ӧng, Co-Pantry Lead at Lifeboat. Once through the window, the boxes slide onto tables where sorting can begin.

Inside, Lifeboat volunteers have already set up 120 open bags, ready to be filled with rescued food. Once our Food Rescue Coordinators have finished unloading the truck and the boxes are sorted, the volunteers and staff at Lifeboat take all the food out of their boxes. This allows them to gauge how much food can go into each bag.

From there, volunteers pack the bags one food group at a time. Each one gets roughly the same type of food, ensuring each person receives a well-balanced bag of healthy food. Packing order is important with heavier items less likely to be damaged by heavyweight going at the bottom.

Finally, when the tables are cleared and the bags are packed, it’s time to bring the bags to the front of the church, where most are distributed to their community in Fenway. On other days, the bags are delivered to people’s homes when they are unable to come pick up at the pantry due to health, mobility, or transportation issues, or because they are under a COVID-19 quarantine.

We’re grateful to work with nonprofit organizations, like Lifeboat, who show so much care in what they do. They help us get the food we rescue to people who need it most – it takes partnership and teamwork to feed our community and we’re glad to be doing it together!