By Anne Levin

Share My Meals, the Princeton-based nonprofit dedicated to addressing food insecurity and the environmental impact of food waste, has been awarded a $125,000 sponsorship from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) to establish a statewide Meal Recovery Coalition (MRC).

The funding will allow the organization, which recovers surplus nutritious, prepared meals from cafeterias and food services and delivers them to those in need, to expand its reach statewide. According to sharemymeals.org, 1.2 million people in New Jersey are food insecure. And in the food service sector alone, an estimated five million prepared meals are being wasted each year in the Garden State.

The sponsorship from the NJEDA “will make a substantial difference in fighting food insecurity and food waste in the local community,” said Share My Meals CEO Helene Lanctuit, in a press release. “The support exemplifies Gov. 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.”

Share My Meals and the NJEDA have been partners in the past. Just two months after the nonprofit was founded in January 2020, COVID-19 hit, forcing Share My Meals to switch from its original premise of recovering meals from corporations to buying meals at cost from local

restaurants, and delivering them to families and seniors who needed them. The NJEDA assisted with that.

As the pandemic eased, the nonprofit was able to return to its original mission of recovering surplus meals, which became the Meal Recovery Program.

“When we decided to set up the Coalition, which is meant to be a collaboration between the private and public sectors, we went to them [the NJEDA] and asked for support,” Lanctuit said in a phone conversation. “We keep growing. We keep reaching out to new corporations with cafeterias, hospitals, food service providers such as caterers, and educational institutions — where food goes to waste.”

Feeding the hungry is one part of the equation; helping the environment is another. Recovering the meals keeps food waste out of landfills. Last year, Share My Meals recovered and served 62,000 prepared meals from 52 food donors. Working with their 25 nonprofit partners, the organization distributed the meals to 1,500 throughout New Jersey. As a result, 220,000 pounds of CO2 equivalent were saved from food waste diverted from landfills.

Food safety is another key component. Share My Meals was able to refine its safety processes during the pandemic. “Thanks to a grant from the NJEDA, and having the time, we now have a technique that enables us to expand and manage the flow of meals in real time. Tracking those meals can be much faster than it used to be,” Lanctuit said.

The NJEDA sponsorship will equip Share My Meals to recover and distribute more meals, and will empower other organizations to undertake meal recovery.

“Under Gov. Murphy’s leadership, NJEDA is committed to supporting and scaling creative approaches to combating food insecurity,” said the agency’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.”

The nonprofit has expanded from Mercer County to Morristown, Camden, Somerset, and beyond. The goal is to make meal recovery the norm for food service across New Jersey, making the State a leader in strengthening food security.

“One of the objectives is to create a national model for education,” said Lanctuit. “That’s a longer-term goal. There is so much more to do first in New Jersey.”