When we learned that 54.3+ million Americans, including 18 million children, were expected to experience food insecurity in 2020, we knew we had to help. HelloFresh has always been committed to giving back to our community, and last year we ramped up our efforts to meet the food shortage challenges that COVID-19 pandemic presented.
Our social impact program, Beyond The Box, was created to support those in need by increasing their accessibility to nutritious food. Always guided by our mission to change the way people eat forever, Beyond the Box is a multifaceted program that encourages in-kind and monetary donations, seasonal product drives, and employee volunteerism.
Because there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to solving hunger, HelloFresh tackled this issue through multiple programs, providing fresh food to communities nationwide.
FOOD SURPLUS
One of our primary ongoing initiatives is donating the vast majority of our fresh, unsold ingredients to local charitable organizations to support those facing food insecurity. Thanks to our weekly recipe rotation, we identify these foods long before they spoil so they make it to those in need, rather than landfills.
MEALS WITH MEANING
Along with our surplus food donation, we also design meal kits specifically for those who are food insecure—and pack them with plenty of produce and easy-to-prepare recipes. HelloFresh customers can gift a meal kit to someone in need via their account page in just two clicks. We call this program Meals With Meaning, and targeted donations to individuals and families suffering from food insecurity exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
LIMEAID
Through our LimeAid initiative, we asked HelloFresh community members to nominate friends who could use nourishing, home-cooked meals for a chance to win a 6-month subscription to HelloFresh. We chose two winners and also donated a box of meals to everyone who was nominated. In addition to the winners and nominees, our internal Community Team sourced and surprised several people per week from a collection of mutual aid communities with a free HelloFresh box.
LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS
One of the keys to Beyond The Box’s success has been substantial, lasting partnerships. Our years-long collaboration with Table to Table in New Jersey has enabled us to provide hundreds of thousands of meals to those living in the Newark area.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we also partnered with the New York State Division of Veterans' Services to provide meals to veterans and military families.
HelloFresh supports several food banks, food rescue programs, and charitable organizations nationwide. We consider it our duty to help when we can. Here are just a few of the organizations we supported in 2020:
We are proud to say that our strategies to combat hunger were successful and had a positive impact on the communities we serve. In 2020, HelloFresh donated a total of 5.4 million pounds of food… that’s 4.4 million meals nationwide. Since the launch of Beyond The Box, we've garnered over 159.9 million earned media impressions.
It warms our hearts to hear that our efforts are making a difference…
“The partnership with HelloFresh has allowed Table to Table to bring food to an astounding 198 new community groups, feeding the hungry over the last seven years.”
-Julie Kinner, Table to Table Director of Recipient Relations & Community Affairs
"I am proud to see great New York companies taking a stand to help ensure that no family goes hungry and on behalf of New Yorkers - thank you to HelloFresh for its dedication and efforts on this critical mission."
- Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York
We at HelloFresh look forward to the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, however our mission to increase the accessibility and availability of nutritious food will not stop. We plan on continuing our Beyond the Box programs to combat hunger well into the future.
