Spoonfuls, Inc.

Spoonfuls is a nonprofit food recovery organization based in Newton that rescues healthy, fresh food that would otherwise be thrown away. Its team collects unsold but still good food from grocery stores, wholesalers, farms, farmers’ markets, school and corporate cafeterias and stadiums, then delivers it the same day to pantries, meal programs and other community organizations serving people facing food insecurity. It describes itself as the largest food recovery operation of its kind in New England.

Spoonfuls launched in 2010 with a single food recovery route and has since distributed more than 45 million pounds of food, enough for roughly 36 million meals. Each week it keeps nearly 140,000 pounds of food out of the waste stream and reaches about 86,000 people. The organization frames its work around the health, environmental and economic effects of wasted food, and works with business leaders and policymakers on longer-term solutions to hunger and climate change.

What to Know

• Spoonfuls is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
• Food pickups run five days a week.
• Fundraisers include the Ultimate Tailgate restaurant tasting event and a charity team in the Boston Marathon.
• A five-year strategic plan aims to expand into new areas and grow its network of partners.