Second Helpings - Atlanta, a nonprofit food rescue organization, has teamed up with Move For Hunger and local moving companies to recover fresh produce for communities in need. What started as a one-off call for transportation help has led to weekly recoveries of excess healthy produce.
Back in January, Second Helpings - Atlanta found themselves in a bit of a pickle. One of their trucks normally used to distribute food to food pantries was in the shop, so they reached out to Move For Hunger for help.
Our team immediately engaged Atlantic Relocation who enthusiastically jumped in to deliver over 4,200 lbs of fresh food to a distribution site at the Colony South Mobile Home Village, and then another 8,400 lbs two weeks later. The two deliveries combined provided 10,500 meals to that community!
A few weeks later, in March, an even bigger opportunity became available. HelloFresh had thousands of pounds of healthy, fresh produce to donate and they needed to donate it fast. Second Helpings - Atlanta reached out to Move For Hunger to assist with the recovery of the large donation just 15 miles away. In order to support this fresh produce recovery, Atlantic Relocation Systems, a member of the Move For Hunger network since 2013, rose to the challenge again by donating two of their trucks as well as drivers.
And the fresh food kept coming. Each week, the donations of fresh produce included all types of nutritious foods including apples, asparagus, limes, greens, onions, mushrooms, peppers, potatoes, and more! In total, there were over 42,000 pounds of fresh produce transported by Atlantic Relocation Systems, and another 5,000 lbs transported by our friends at Hilldrup, another moving company and Move For Hunger partner in Atlanta.
Second Helpings - Atlanta’s efficiencies and strong network of partners enabled them to move the nutritionally dense foods quickly into the hands of those who struggle to afford a healthy diet.
“That produce was distributed to 20 different food pantries and community feeding programs across Metro Atlanta. As food prices have risen we’ve consistently heard from our partners that their biggest need is fresh food – and we all helped provide a ton of high quality, nutritious food to our Atlanta neighbors last week.”
A sustainable donation system was forming, and HelloFresh was hopeful to continue the weekly donations if we could commit to transporting one truckload per week using a larger tractor trailer. This would be a tall task for any mover, but we knew just the right company to partner with.
Enter Nelson Westerberg.
The company has been a part of the Move For Hunger network since 2013 and their combined locations nationwide have delivered over 600,000 meals. With their fleet of trucks, including tractor-trailers, they were eager to step in and donate weekly scheduled pickups which are now a part of their regular operation. The provision of a single larger tractor-trailer eases congestion at the warehouse and gives HelloFresh the flexibility of donating 10,000 - 40,000 pounds of fresh food each week.
This could amount to over 1 million fresh produce pounds annually to communities in Georgia that are struggling with food insecurity. In the Peach State, over 1.1 million adults are food insecure, and 1 in 7 children don’t know when their next meal will be.
Healthy nutritious food is now reaching hundreds of food insecure families because multiple companies came together to solve a problem. We are grateful to HelloFresh for their donations, and to all the movers involved - Atlantic Relocation Systems, Hilldrup, and Nelson Westerberg, who went above and beyond to meet the need, and who continue to serve their communities in meaningful ways.
Want to learn more? Read more about our Fresh Food Program and how you can support our mission to fight hunger by donating.
