Roughly 1,500 ready-to-eat Thanksgiving meals went to people in need recently thanks to an Arizona nonprofit and food delivery company.
For the third year in a row, nonprofit Waste Not and delivery service On the Road Meals teamed up to cook, assemble and deliver meals.
On the Road Meals co-owners Hannah and Tom Welce started their business wanting to give back.
“It can be a little chaotic,” Hannah said of their third time tackling the huge Thanksgiving meal drive, “when you have, you know, 550 pounds of potatoes to peel and 75 bags of green beans - you know, we had quite a bit. We're really lucky that we had our staff with us yesterday.”
Tom said the couple was fortunate to both have homecooked holiday meals growing up.
“We kind of want to give that from our hearts to other people,” said Tom, “that they can just have a delicious meal that probably they otherwise wouldn't have around Thanksgiving.”
Waste Not has been rescuing food waste and redistributing it to nonprofits in need for roughly 30 years. But Rosa Hernandez with the group said food insecurity in Arizona has been rising fast.
“It's closer to a million people in Arizona that are in need of food this year, and we've seen a big influx as people have moved here,” said Hernandez. “We've seen it with inflation, the rise of rent prices. So it's a huge increase this year, and On The Road Meals has really stepped up to that. Last year, we did over 850 meals. This year, we're doing 1,500. Every single one of those meals will be used.”
Prepared with whole foods over several days, Hernandez said it was especially important to deliver high-quality, nutritious meals despite the growing volume. And she added that they’re distributed with a focus on those who will benefit most; like people with disabilities, those without access to a working kitchen, or who otherwise wouldn’t have a holiday meal.
