Local non-profit Food for Free has been delivering much needed food donations to individuals and relief organizations for the past 40 years. —Photo by Fernando Cervantes Jr.

By Fernando Cervantes Jr.

Food for Free, a local non-profit, has been operating in Somerville for the last 40 years, providing fresh produce and increasing access to food. It operates from a 12,000-square-foot warehouse in the Inner Belt with over 30 full-time employees.

The organization continues to deliver food to meal programs, pantries, and shelters across Somerville, Cambridge and Eastern Massachusetts.

Sasha Purpura, CEO of Food for Free, has been part of the nonprofit for the last 10 years. She talked about Food for Free’s development during her time. “My job has changed consistently over the past 10 years, when I started 10 years ago it was a much smaller organization,” Purpura said. “We were located in Cambridge and there was myself, our fundraiser and we had a few drivers and we operated out of this little house.”

Food for Free also partners with various organizations around the area such as Tufts, Harvard and the Greater Boston Food Bank. With their help, the nonprofit saves food headed for the trash.

According to a report from Feeding America, in 2020, about 500,000 people in Massachusetts were food insecure. To combat this, Food for Free has had to distribute more food than ever. “When the pandemic hit, the growth went through the roof, the demand was so intense,” Purpura said. “Between 2020 and now we went from distributing 2 million pounds per year to 8 million pounds.”

During this same time period, according to Purpura, Food for Free also had to spend more money in order to access food for distribution, going from $20,000 to $1,000,000 spent on food in fiscal year 2021.

Looking towards the future, Purpura and her nonprofit hope to continue offering the same service they do now, both in quality and scale. “So over the next 3-5 years our goal is to maintain this level of service,” Purpura said. “What we were so good at over the pandemic was adapting and chaining our programs at the drop of a hat to meet the changing needs.”

Food for Free is always in need of volunteers and all donations are welcomed. To find more information and to access food near you, visit: https://foodforfree.org/ or https://foodforfree.org/need-food/