No-Cost Grocery Program

“The donations help greatly in reducing my grocery bill and save me a good amount of money. Living on a fixed income and purchasing food can be quite expensive. I had gone without some weeks. I especially like the salads, fruit cups, and fresh sandwiches. Thank you for helping me sustain a good diet.” – Melrose recipient

A free grocery program offered at senior housing facilities in Melrose.

No Cost Grocery Programs are food distribution programs that exist within the backyards and community centers of affordable housing sites and schools. They address barriers to food access, such as transportation barriers, times and days in which food pantries are open, red tape and paperwork, shame and stigma and external negativity. To that end, The Food Drive delivers 300 pounds of fresh food to the common areas of four Melrose senior housing residences every week.

This program model addresses common food access barriers by distributing food through community-led food distribution points. The fact that the programs are run out of these easy-to-access locations ameliorate barriers associated with operating hours, transportation, and transporting groceries. The fact that the programs are run by community members and other program users ameliorate common barriers associated with shame and stigma. The fact that The Food Drive coordinates with community members to deliver specific food items program users want to receive in quantities they can use, ameliorates barriers around choice and the burden around unwanted food.

The Food Drive is on a mission to direct healthy, viable food from full landfills toward full plates (and healthy neighbors!) in our community. We hope to expand the No Cost Grocery Store Program to additional facilities and to schools in Melrose in the future.