Doing Measurable Good
By Andrew Staiti, Food Recovery Coordinator
On December 12, I reached a personal milestone by recovering a record 3,516 pounds of perfectly good, unsold food in a day. At my last delivery that day, I distributed 110 boxes of food to Lifeboat Boston Community Market alone, a Spoonfuls partner that reaches over 1,000 Boston families experiencing food insecurity. This is all food that would have otherwise gone to waste.
When a Lifeboat volunteer, Nansee Ong, saw how much was in the truck, her jaw nearly dropped. “That’s a lot of food!” she said.
And indeed, it was! The bed of the truck was packed all the way to the back door with box upon box filled with fresh, nutritious food – food that would have otherwise ended up in a landfill or compost pile, but would now reach people who truly need it.
A staff member at another community-based organization we work with said, “I used to volunteer at a Salvation Army that received fresh, healthy food from Spoonfuls. That’s where I first saw the impact of Spoonfuls’ work. When I got a position at my current organization, I knew our clients could benefit from the deliveries too, so I helped to set up a partnership with Spoonfuls. It’s incredible to see Spoonfuls’ team continuing to work in the community and providing good food to organizations like mine for people in need of assistance.”
That’s just the testimony of one person at one organization: one of the over 200 organizations Spoonfuls partners with. A senior center in Needham along my route sees nearly 200 seniors experiencing food insecurity daily, and our team’s weekly deliveries help ensure they can continue to serve such a high volume of people. Another one of our partners, Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center, packs all of the food Spoonfuls delivers into individual bags, which feeds about 300 families per week.
As a Food Recovery Coordinator, that’s the most rewarding part of my job: seeing the tangible benefits of recovered food in the communities we serve each day.
From food pantries to senior living facilities to health centers and more, there are many people experiencing hunger in our communities – but there is also a lot of good food getting to people who need it because of organizations like Spoonfuls and our partners. I know there’s more work to be done, and I’m glad to be playing a part in this food recovery solution.
Andrew Staiti joined Spoonfuls’ Food Recovery Team in July 2024. As a Food Recovery Coordinator in our Greater Boston region, he witnesses the impact of food recovery firsthand. Read on to hear more from Andrew about his experiences on the road.
