Family Friendly Meal Program
Concord, New Hampshire has so much to offer its residents, but many would be surprised to learn that areas in Concord are considered a food desert. As defined by the USDA, food deserts are low-income communities in the United States that lack stores which sell healthy and affordable food. The lack of access to stores in these communities may contribute to poor diet, obesity, and other diet-related illness.
The Friendly Kitchen, Concord’s only soup kitchen, has been a staple in the city for over 40 years feeding those less fortunate. Recognizing that we were not serving many families at our facility and we needed to do more to reach families and seniors struggling with food insecurity we created our Family Friendly Meal Program. We know there are many families unable to come to the Friendly Kitchen to receive a meal, that is why for the first time we are bringing the meals to them!
During the spring of 2021 we piloted the program through a partnership with Merrimack Valley Day Care. The childcare agency had seven families sign up for the program and those families began to received two prepared meals each week. These meals were delivered to the child care agencies for families to pick up when picking up their child. Families could then take the meals and heat at home and serve to their families. Shortly after the pilot we extended to include more families within Merrimack Valley Day Care and also families utilizing the Boys & Girls Club in Concord. We have also extended our outreach to include families being housed by Friends Emergency Housing and the Crisis Center of Central New Hampshire, as well as families identified through the Concord School District to make our number of families being served to 59. We partnered with Concord Housing to establish a food pantry at their Jenning Drive location which houses very low-income families. We also are sharing food with Horseshoe Pond seniors, NHTI students, and Friends of Forgotten Children as well as other area pantries.
In two years, the program distributed over 60,000 meals and over 40,000 pounds of food to those in need.