Lovin’ Spoonfuls Founder & Executive Director, Ashley Stanley, was profiled in a recent article by Women You Should Know that was subsequently featured on GOOD – check out the full article here!

REEL Entrepreneurs caught a glimpse of the Lovin’ Spoonfuls team in action at Pine Street Inn – check out the video here!

On May 18th, Lovin’ Spoonfuls participated in Radio 92.9’s 20th annual EarthFest, an all day outdoor event at the Esplanade featuring live music from Vertical Horizon, Cracker, Gentlemen Hall and Fastball. Vendors including Whole Foods, Applegate Farms, Organic Valley, Sabra, Odwalla and many others provided food samples for the attendees. The Lovin’ Spoonfuls team had a table during the event and also helped at the end of the day to recover and donate any leftover food.

Thanks to everyone who has come out to support us at an event this Spring!

April

We are excited to be included in an upcoming ramen battle, Paper Chase: Yen Ramen Battle II.  Local culinary vets Mark O’Leary and Wheeler del Torro will throw down in this head-to-head battle at the Kitchn Table at 3 Scoops Cafe on Sunday, April 28th, 2013. No matter the outcome, Lovin’ Spoonfuls will benefit from this tasty event. To find out what’s at stake for the two competitors in this ramen showdown and to purchase tickets for the event, check out the event page here.

May

Eat Boston’s highly anticipated Bacon and Beer Festival is back! The 2013 Bacon and Beer Festival will be held on Saturday, May 4th, 2013 from 2:30pm to 5:00pm at House of Blues Boston. We are excited to once again be included along with Community Servings as charitable benefactors of the event. Festival tickets are sold out, but there’s an entire line-up of bacon and beer themed events throughout the weekend that should satisfy any craving. The 2013 Bacon and Beer Festival event page has all the details, including the full list of participating restaurants and breweries. While you’re there, don’t forget to check out the amazing event merch – t-shirts, koozies, and much more!

Mark your calendars for the 20th annual Radio 92.9 EarthFest, returning to The DCR Hatch Memorial Shell on Saturday May 18th, 2013. This family-friendly outdoor festival features a variety of local and regional non-profit organizations in addition to live music and local food vendors. Make sure to visit the EarthFest event page for all the event details and check back for upcoming announcements about this year’s bands. We hope to see you there!

We’ve opened up the bidding on twitter (@lovinfoodrescue) with a starting price of $250- face value for the pair of General Admission tickets. Bidding will remain open until Friday March 22nd at 4PM. Please submit bids via email to info@lovinspoonfulsinc.org with the subject line “Cochon 555 Tickets.” Only bids submitted via email greater than the starting price of $250 and increasing in $10 increments will be considered. We will keep our twitter feed updated with the latest bids using #lovincochon, so make sure to follow along with the conversation! All proceeds from the auction will go directly to Lovin’ Spoonfuls.

On February 7th & 8th, 2013 one of our community partners, The Barbara Lynch Foundation, will host the First Annual Blizzard Bash. Over 30 celebrated chefs and bartenders from around the country will gather at the Boston Children’s Museum for an evening of spectacular food, drinks and entertainment. Party-goers and chefs alike are invited to change venues for the official event after-party, “The Industry Thing,” at Villa Victoria. All proceeds from The Industry Thing event will benefit Lovin’ Spoonfuls.

For more information about the First Annual Blizzard Bash, please click here.

Buy your tickets for The Industry Thing here!

Mark your calendars for another event in February- the Lamb Jam is returning to Boston! BostonChefs.com and the American Lamb Board are joining forces once again to host the 2013 Boston Lamb Jam and Lovin’ Spoonfuls is very excited to be involved in the event as a community partner. Join us at the Charles Hotel on Sunday, February 17th to sample creations from an amazing line-up of chefs hailing from Boston, Providence, RI and Portland, ME.

Purchase your tickets here before they sell out!

Boston-based food rescue service expands its reach

Lisa van der Pool
January 18, 2013
Boston Business Journal

Once a week, workers at Baldor Specialty Foods in Chelsea box up bananas, pre-cut fruits and vegetables, and other produce that are slightly bruised or have reached their expiration date.

Food like this used to be destined for the dumpster. But for the past two years, a truck from the Lovin’ Spoonfuls Inc. service comes by every week to pick it up for delivery later that day to a shelter or food pantry.

“It’s a shame to throw out food that can be used,” said Tedd Rama, head of operations at the food distribution company. “And everyone (at Lovin’ Spoonfuls) is super friendly and really passionate about what they’re doing.”

Lovin’ Spoonfuls is a nonprofit operation focused on securing daily donations of fresh produce, lean proteins and whole grains, and donating the food to food pantries and homeless shelters that same day. It’s the brainchild of Ashley Stanley, 34, who founded the Boston-based nonprofit three years ago.

Her vision was to help tackle the vast problem of hunger in the state by trying to “rescue” food from grocery stores and restaurants that would have normally been thrown out. In part, she modeled her program after other states’ food rescue organizations, including City Harvest in New York City.

In Massachusetts, the Brookline resident and her team of four employees are slowly chipping away at the problem.

In 2012, Lovin’ Spoonfuls recovered 375,000 pounds of food, up from 60,000 in 2011, by adding a second truck and more willing donors. The organization is adding a third truck this year.

Lovin’ Spoonfuls’ budget for 2013 is $665,000 and the nonprofit raised $410,000 in its 2012 fiscal year, and $208,000 in fiscal 2011. The bulk of that money was raised through foundations, including the John W. Henry Foundation and the Highland Street Foundation. Lovin’ Spoonfuls’ board of directors includes Robert Buffum, of Boston Private Bank & Trust, and Oscar Herrera of KnowledgeSource Solutions. Lovin’ Spoonfuls also has a culinary panel that includes Andrew Zimmern, host of “Bizarre Foods” on the Travel Channel, and Ming Tsai of Blue Ginger in Wellesley.

Besides aggressively fundraising through private donors, Stanley was one of 16 winners of the MassChallenge startup competition in October and she heavily promotes the Lovin’ Spoonfuls mission through social media. She says those two things have helped get the word out about her mission.

The nonprofit collects food donations from a variety of supermarkets, farms and restaurants including Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Buckle Farm and Captain Marden’s Seafoods. The beneficiaries include Rosie’s Place, Pine Street Inn and Bridge Over Troubled Waters.

Joanne Chang-Myers, co-owner of four Flour bakeries, has been donating food to Lovin’ Spoonfuls since the nonprofit launched three years ago. Lovin’ Spoonfuls picks up Flour’s donations twice each week at each of the bakery’s four locations.

“It’s brilliant. Working in a kitchen, you see how much food ends up getting wasted,” said Chang-Myers, also a member of Lovin’ Spoonfuls’ culinary panel. “There’s a lot of food that we make that just has a little something that makes it not quite up to what we’re selling. And up until Lovin’ Spoonfuls, we just threw it away.”

Organizations that are on the receiving end of the nonprofit’s donations appreciate that the food is largely made up of fresh produce.

At the Elizabeth Peabody House in Somerville, Rebekah Carter, the emergency food pantry coordinator, gets a Lovin’ Spoonfuls delivery once per week.

“Just in general, I think what they’re doing is cool because they’re providing fresh food and local foods to food pantries” that oftentimes receive only “shelf-stable” foods like canned goods, Carter said.

Katie Amoro of Rosie’s Place said the shelter received $25,000 worth of donated fresh produce in 2012, in large part because of Lovin’ Spoonfuls’ actions. “Their focus on providing nutritious food for our guests is so important,” Amoro said.

In 2010, more than 34 million tons of food waste was generated in the U.S. Meanwhile, an estimated 50 million Americans don’t have access to enough food, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. And more than 750,000 people in Massachusetts are chronically hungry, according to Boston-based Project Bread, an organization working to end hunger in the state.

Stanley said her biggest challenge is getting people to think differently about how they can change the vast problem of hunger and food waste.

“So much of what we hear in the media for so long now is that the problem of hunger is this chronic problem, … in perpetuity,” Stanley said. “There’s something that’s a little hopeless about that.”

See this article online

First up is a meaty brunch battle between sister restaurants The Salty Pig and Coda Bar & Kitchen on Sunday December 9th. The restaurants will be vying for the coveted Crown of Pork, a crown made entirely of bacon awarded to the restaurant that serves the most bacon during the Benevolent Brunch Battle. A portion of the proceeds from brunch service at The Salty Pig will be donated to Lovin’ Spoonfuls while Coda will be raising funds for Room to Grow, a local non-profit that supports babies born into poverty. For menus and additional information, please visit the websites of the individual restaurants, www.thesaltypig.com and www.codaboston.com.

If bacon-filled brunch isn’t tempting enough, perhaps an opportunity to volunteer with Lovin’ Spoonfuls will satisfy your cravings this holiday season. We have a holiday-themed event coming up and we need your help! On December 16th Lovin’ Spoonfuls will host a gift wrapping table outside of the Barnes & Noble bookstore at the Prudential Center. We will be wrapping purchases from any store in the mall and all donations from the shoppers will go directly to Lovin’ Spoonfuls. If you are interested in volunteering at the Lovin’ Spoonfuls gift wrapping table, please email Emma at Emma@lovinspoonfulsinc.org for more information. We hope to see you there!