Spoonfuls Spotlight: Healthy Waltham
Spoonfuls partners with over 200 community-based organizations to divert fresh, wholesome food from landfills and deliver it to programs serving neighbors in need. Headed into our fifteenth year of food recovery, we’re reflecting on significant moments and partnerships throughout our organization’s history.
One such moment (and who can forget it?) was the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, now nearly five years ago, when hunger relief efforts like ours and our partners’ helped ensure neighbors stayed fed and safe.
One Spoonfuls’ partnership born in this era was with Healthy Waltham. We recently connected with Healthy Waltham’s Operations Director, Maria DiMaggio, to discuss the evolution of our work together and shared impact since 2020.
Tell us about Healthy Waltham. What kind of services do you offer?
Healthy Waltham was originally founded in 2004 and became a 501c3 nonprofit in 2013. We began as a health and wellness promotion organization, offering food assistance, nutrition education, and opportunities to engage in physical activities. In 2017, we started collaborating on a food pantry with Waltham Public Schools. Then, the need for food assistance surged when the COVID-19 pandemic hit since people were out of work and many other pantries closed down.
Now, although many consider the pandemic to be over, people still struggle with consistent access to nutritious food, especially amid rising grocery prices. We often see that families must prioritize where to spend their money, and sometimes food falls by the wayside.Our pantry continues to be in high demand. We now serve over 800 families twice a month through in-person distributions, curbside pickups, and collaborations with partner agencies, and we’re still looking to expand our reach.
Our first time collaborating was around the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. How has our partnership evolved since then?
I remember it being a chaotic time during the height of the pandemic. Since the school where we had been hosting the pantry closed, we had to figure out another way to get food to people as fast as possible. We ended up moving our entire distribution outdoors. Spoonfuls was one of the partners that stepped up to ensure community organizations like Healthy Waltham still received food to support those struggling with food insecurity who were exponentially affected by the hardships of the pandemic. That was the foundation of our partnership.
As the pandemic steadied out, so did our routine with Spoonfuls. We transitioned to a more regular delivery schedule, and since then, an increase in our freezer space has allowed us to take more food varieties from Spoonfuls. Now, we can provide clients with items like meat, frozen prepared dishes, and spices because our partnership with Spoonfuls has adapted as our services have.
Are there any food items from Spoonfuls that have been particularly impactful for your clients?
As you can imagine, everybody wants a turkey around Thanksgiving time. When we got turkeys from Spoonfuls around the holiday, we were able to put those aside in our freezers and give them to folks who missed our pantry distribution earlier in the month. In one case, a woman who cooks for her church was able to get a very large turkey to prepare for her community. That’s one of the things I appreciate about Spoonfuls’ deliveries – it gives us more flexibility. It ensures we have fresh food on hand to offer.
What do Healthy Waltham clients enjoy most about the food they receive through Spoonfuls?
What’s fun about Spoonfuls is that you never know what you’re going to get except that usually it’s fresh food. Foods like high-quality steaks or lamb chops aren’t something organizations typically can get from a food bank, but we’ve received them from Spoonfuls. And because what we get from other agencies is often the same week to week, our clients enjoy the variety that comes with Spoonfuls’ deliveries. The unique food Spoonfuls brings Healthy Waltham provides the opportunity for our clients to choose to try new things or pick something special for themselves.
Can you tell us anything about what Healthy Waltham has planned for the future as we move through 2025?
We’ve been leaning into our pantry in recent years as we’ve seen the critical community resource it’s become. This year, we’re working to move into a bigger space so we can have more one-on-one conversations with people about nutrition and present more learning opportunities. As we grow and gain additional resources to better engage with our clients, it will be great to continue exploring how we can work with Spoonfuls to educate our clients about different types of food.
Interested in incorporating Spoonfuls’ work into your education programming? Invite us to speak to your class, community group, or company about the issues of wasted food and hunger!
