HelloFresh to Donate 250K Meals to Texas Residents in Need
Meal kit company HelloFresh has teamed up with Tarrant Area Food Bank (TAFB) to provide more than 250,000 meal kits to those facing food insecurity in Tarrant County, Texas, and the 12 surrounding counties by the end of this year.
According to Chicago-based Feeding America, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated food insecurity over the past year, with recent studies finding that there are nearly 550,000 people still battling food insecurity across the 13 counties served by TAFB.
HelloFresh, which operates distribution and fulfillment facilities in Grand Prairie and Irving, Texas, delivers ingredients and easy-to-follow recipes to households worldwide. Through its ongoing Beyond the Box social impact program, HelloFresh regularly donates fresh, unsold ingredients to TAFB, reducing food waste while providing nutritious food to those who need it most. The meal kits through this latest venture with TAFB were specially designed by HelloFresh through its Meals with Meaning program to provide food-insecure residents with wholesome, fresh ingredients to make complete meals at home for their families.
Each meal kit consists of a step-by-step recipe card and all of the ingredients needed to make hearty meals. In addition to a meal kit, recipients will also receive a bag of fresh, seasonal fruit. Meal kits will be assembled every Wednesday at the TAFB’s distribution center in Fort Worth, Texas, by community volunteers and initially distributed at their weekly Mega Mobile Market, which takes place at Herman Clark Stadium in Fort Worth every Friday from 9:00 a.m. CT to 12:00 p.m. CT. As an ongoing program, the meal kits will be distributed through TAFB’s vast network of partner agencies.
“At HelloFresh, our mission is to ensure that fresh, delicious food is easily accessible, especially for our neighbors and local community members who may be struggling with food insecurity,” said Uwe Voss, CEO of HelloFresh U.S. “The pandemic has had a significant impact on food insecurity, and we are proud to expand our long-standing relationship with the Tarrant Area Food Bank to provide Meals with Meaning meal kits to residents in need.”
“Tarrant Area Food Bank is so appreciative of our partnership with HelloFresh to give nutritious home meal kits to those families and friends who attend our Mega Mobile events,” said Julie Butner, president and CEO of TAFB. “We are always looking for ways to encourage our food-insecure families to learn how to cook fresh vegetables and incorporate them into their daily meals, which is exactly what Meals with Meaning does as well.”
Fort Worth-based TAFB is the primary distribution source of donated food for hunger-relief partner agencies and feeding programs in Tarrant County. Through a network of 350 partner agencies, it's able to provide access to more than 1 million weekly nutritious meals to children and adults facing hunger. This work resulted in access to 60 million nutritious meals in fiscal year 2020.
Other donation programs that HelloFresh has participated in include its recently launched @TheTable, a joint partnership with the Food Education Fund and the Fund for Public Schools. The partnership provides free meal kits to 1,000 students enrolled in culinary education programs at New York City public high schools with career and technical education programs.
HelloFresh operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Australia, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, France and Denmark. It has offices in New York, Berlin, London, Amsterdam, Sydney, Toronto, Auckland, Paris and Copenhagen. In Q1 2021, the company delivered 239 million meals and reached close to 7.3 million active customers. HelloFresh is No. 74 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer's 2021 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.
