By Donald Gilpin

Helene Lanctuit
(Tamara Gillon Photography)

Growing rapidly on its mission to serve the food insecure and reduce the environmental impact of food waste, Princeton-based Share My Meals has appointed Helene Lanctuit as its first chief executive officer.

Founded in 2020, Share My Meals has doubled the number of meals recovered in just the past year, distributing an average of 6,000 meals a month collected from 40 food donors.

Lanctuit intends to accelerate that growth. “It’s the best moment for me to step in,” she said. “I’m very happy to be leading this organization. There’s so much potential, and the staff is amazing.”

Share My Meals started in Princeton just before COVID-19 hit, and Lanctuit is looking to continue here while also expanding the organization’s scope. Share My Meals is now delivering additional surplus meals to other nonprofit organizations such as Mercer Street Friends Food Bank, Princeton Mobile Food Pantry, HomeFront, Arm In Arm, and others that have a direct relationship with food insecure families in Trenton and other areas of high food insecurity.

Since 2020, Share My Meals has recovered more than 70,000 prepared meals from corporations, educational institutions, hotels, and hospitals, and served them directly to individuals in their homes or through its community partners. Among the regular donors are Bristol Myers Squibb, Novo Nordisk, and several Princeton University eating clubs.

“We are delighted to welcome Helene,” said Share My Meals President and Co-founder Isabelle Lambotte. “She has the perfect mix of knowledge, skills, and experience to take Share My Meals forward, to build greater capacity to deliver healthy meals to vulnerable people, and further reduce the environmental impact of food waste.”

Lambotte noted that Share My Meals is now serving food insecure families and individuals in Mercer, Middlesex, and Somerset counties and has saved more than 400,000 pounds of CO2 emissions from food waste. The volunteer-driven nonprofit operates out of Dorothea’s House on John Street with a staff of just five people.

Lanctuit has 10 years of experience in corporate environmental sustainability, including three years at Nestle, where she measured and minimized food waste. She received her engineering degree from the Lille School of Engineering in France, and has held technology and engineering positions at corporations in Europe and the U.S.

She has served on the Share My Meals board of directors since October 2021. In her new position, Lanctuit will continue to work closely with Lambotte, who will remain as president of the organization.

Lanctuit commented on the possibilities for Share My Meals and the bright prospects for innovative approaches. “It is especially important now, when the rising cost of living is driving an ever greater need for regular access to healthy food,” she said. “We find that corporations, restaurants, and other establishments want to play a positive part in their neighborhoods, reduce their food waste, and decrease their environmental impact. Share My Meals provides the link so that everyone benefits.”

Lanctuit emphasized the importance and complexity of the innovative technology that helps Share My Meals to recover and deliver its meals safely and efficiently.

The meal donors put the meals on a reusable tray that is already bar-coded, Lanctuit said. The trays are scanned when they leave the donors and again when they arrive at the hub or go to the recipient’s location. Tracking the food, which is perishable, allows Share My Meals to monitor safety and efficiency of delivery.

“We’re tracking the time it takes to get from point A to point B,” said Lanctuit. “We’ve been developing this technology, which helps us to go faster from pickup to delivery and also to communicate with our volunteers and with our food donors. All of this navigation system is included with our technology platform.” There is real time monitoring of the number of meals delivered, the dollar amount of the food, pounds of food saved, and pounds of CO2 saved.

“That’s the beauty of the program,” said Lanctuit. “The technology will enable us to do all that.”