The New Jersey Economic Development Authority has awarded Share My Meals a $125,000 grant to help it expand its ongoing meal recovery efforts and establish a statewide Meal Recovery Coalition.
The bigger news may be the innovation around the program itself, which fights both food insecurity and the environmental impact of food waste by recovering.
Here’s how it works: Working with large employers across New Jersey, the Meal Recovery Coalition strives to recover all available nutritious, prepared meals from large cafeterias and other food services. The meals will go to help the food insecure — and do so while preventing unnecessary additions to landfills.
The potential of the program is bigger than you may think: 40% of prepared food goes unsold or uneaten — but only 1% of this food surplus is recovered for donation. Each year, in the food service sector alone, an estimated 5 million prepared meals are being wasted in New Jersey.
Food insecurity, meanwhile, impacts approximately 10% of New Jersey residents.
In 2023, Share My Meals recovered and served 62,000 prepared meals from 52 food donors and, working with its 25 nonprofit partners, distributed them to 1,500 food insecure individuals throughout New Jersey. As a result, 220,000 pounds of CO2 equivalent were saved from food waste diverted from landfills.
The EDA sponsorship will equip Share My Meals to recover and distribute more meals and will support the founding of a statewide Meal Recovery Coalition to empower other organizations to undertake meal recovery.
The coalition will bring together organizations across the state that wish to take a leadership role in addressing food insecurity and climate change.
Share My Meals CEO Hélène Lanctuit said the goal of the coalition will be to make meal recovery the norm for food service across the state, making New Jersey a national leader in strengthening food security. Members will include corporations with cafeterias, food service providers, hospitals and educational institutions. The coalition will partner with nonprofit organizations and state and local governments.
“Share My Meals is grateful for the NJEDA’s sponsorship of the Meal Recovery Coalition, which will make a substantial difference in fighting food insecurity and food waste in the local community,” she said. “This support exemplifies Gov. (Phil) Murphy’s commitment to creating a stronger, fairer New Jersey, where every individual has access to nutritious food and no meal goes to waste.
“We look forward to announcing the members of the MRC in the fall.”
EDA CEO Tim Sullivan said the organization is eager to help.
“Under Gov. Murphy’s leadership, NJEDA is committed to supporting and scaling creative approaches to combating food insecurity,” he said. “By employing meal recovery as a source of quality food for those in need, Share My Meals is demonstrating an innovative, cost-effective and environmentally friendly path forward.”
