Share My Meals has received a $125,000 sponsorship from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) to expand their ongoing meal recovery efforts and establish a statewide Meal Recovery Coalition (MRC).
While food insecurity impacts approximately 10% of New Jersey residents, 40% of food goes unsold or uneaten and only 1% of this food surplus is recovered for donation. Each year, in the food service sector alone, an estimated five million prepared meals are being wasted in New Jersey, according to Share My Meals, a nonprofit organization based in Princeton.
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, preventing unnecessary landfills, as well as influence specific regulatory enablers of meal recovery and make meal recovery the norm in New Jersey. Share My Meals fights both food insecurity and the environmental impact of food waste by recovering and delivering healthy meals to local communities.Â
In 2023, Share My Meals recovered and served 62,000 prepared meals from 52 food donors, distributing them to 1,500 food-insecure individuals while diverting 83,299 pounds of food from being wasted in landfills and preventing 294,539 pounds of CO2 (carbon dioxide) equivalent emissions showcasing our commitment to the planet.
Founded in January 2020, Share My Meals has been active across central and southern New Jersey, dedicated to addressing food insecurity and the environmental impact of food waste by recovering and delivering healthy prepared meals to local communities.
The NJEDA 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, according to Share My Meals.
The NJEDA serves as the state’s principal agency for driving economic growth. Through partnerships with a diverse range of stakeholders, the NJEDA creates and implements initiatives to enhance the economic vitality and quality of life in the state and strengthen New Jersey’s long-term economic competitiveness.
“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,” Hélène Lanctuit, CEO of Share My Meals, 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.”
The MRC, convened by Share My Meals, will bring together organizations across the state that wish to take a leadership role in addressing food insecurity and climate change. The goal of the Coalition will be to make meal recovery the norm for food service across the Garden 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.
“Under Gov. Murphy’s leadership, NJEDA is committed to supporting and scaling creative approaches to combating food insecurity,” said NJEDA’s CEO Tim Sullivan. “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.
“The NJEDA is dedicated to investing in initiatives that will improve food access for New Jersey residents, and that have the potential to serve as a replicable model for the rest of the nation.”Â
Share My Meals is implementing an innovative and robust approach, backed by technology, to recover meals and serve them to food-insecure families and individuals directly and through nonprofit partners safely and efficiently.
