Meals From The Heart

Hope Begins When Hunger Ends

Grocery prices remain high, housing prices remain high, health care prices remain high.  These and many other daily living pressures continue to force many of our neighbors to make difficult financial choices each week.  Food is among the first things cut in an already strained household budget.

Last year, Minnesota families and seniors made 7.5 million* visits to local food shelves to seek help from their neighbors.  This growing need will require more than 'rescued food'** to feed our neighbors.

New meals created by Meals From The Heart are meeting this need. 

Meals From The Heart, based in Oak Park Heights, Minnesota, brings people together to serve neighbors through easy-to-execute, energized, and fun meal-packing events. These events build relationships and strengthen communities while providing flavorful, fortified meals to local food shelves.

So far this year, Meals From the Heart has delivered more than 1,700,000 meals to families in need through our network of 40 food shelf nonprofit partners.

With a small staff (2 full time; 2 part time), our team of more than one hundred volunteers lead thousands of participants to create meals for their neighbors.  And we keep the impact local.  Wherever we pack meals, we work with local distribution partners to help families in that community.

A DECADE OF DIFFERENCE
Our mission at Meals From The Heart is to provide respectful meals to neighbors in need and accessible opportunities for those who wish to serve. A driving goal behind our mission is to ‘make it easy to make a difference.’

On Valentine's Day 2014, we started our meal packing program to make it easy for neighbors to help their neighbors struggling with food insecurity.  

FOR US, IT'S ALL ABOUT RESPECT
Meals From The Heart redesigned a global starvation meal packing process to address local hunger by upgrading the recipes, the ingredients, the packaging, and the packing process. These changes focused on respect for our neighbors who happen to shop at food shelves.

Whether our neighbor is shopping at the local grocer or the local food shelf, people should have access to high quality, great tasting, and nutritious meals. All of our meals are pleasantly packaged in full-color stand-up pouches for proper display on the shelf - just like any product at the grocer.

Our three meal options - Veggies and Rice, PizzaMac, and Alfredo Primavera - are nutritionally fortified to be served alone or with other available food items.  The recipes were developed by our consulting chef, Peggy Waldon, to deliver essential nutrition in a flavorful, satisfying meal.  In fact, the meals taste so good, we are often asked, 'Where can we buy more?' 

A recent note from a Minnesota family:
“I just want you to know how much we love your Veggies and Rice. We make it two nights a week. Since there are just three of us (myself, my daughter and my 6-year-old granddaughter), we get two meals from one package. Sometimes we add a bouillon cube or a can of peas to change it up a bit. But it is perfect all on its own! Our compliments to the chef who created this delicious and nutritious rice mixture. We love it!”
– Pam, Guinevere, and Kylie

Over the past ten years, over 40,000 people have participated in Meals From The Heart meal-packing events across 12 states.  At these events, participants from all walks of life join forces to address the serious hunger crisis in their communities. In doing so, they experience strengthened community bonds and relationships, goodwill, and the joy that comes with the accomplishment of making a real difference for neighbors who need some help.

Each packed meal costs just 35cents.  Meals From The Heart provides these meals to our food shelf partners at no cost because of the generous support of our donors and our packing participants.   

* According to analysis of MN Department of Human Services data by the nonprofit Hunger Solutions.  Visits Hunger Solutions for details.

** When produce, bakery, and other perishable items no longer meet grocery store standards, they’re pulled from shelves and collected for donation to local food banks or food shelves.  These 'rescued food' make up the largest source of donations to food banks, which, in turn, sell them to local food shelves for distribution to families.  Meals created by Meals From The Heart are not rescued food. They are 'firsts' created intentionally for families shopping at a local food shelf.   There is never a charge to food shelves for the meals provided through Meals From The Heart. These meals are donated by the neighbors who help create them.