BALTIMORE (WMAR) — Inflation has taken a toll on a lot of Maryland families so a Baltimore nonprofit is stepping up to help ease the burden of buying groceries by creating a free meal delivery program.
“With inflation and everything else going on in the economy right now, it’s just been tough,” said Christopher Dipnarine, the founder of the nonprofit 4MyCity.
Dipnarine runs the nonprofit, which aims to reduce food waste by rescuing food that distributors cannot sell to grocery stores for various reasons. They check out all the food that comes in to make sure it’s edible and then host giveaways to reach families in need.
“There’s always an excess of food being rescued,” said Dipnarine.
He said they’ve continued to get a steady amount of donated food that they want to distribute, despite prices on the shelves going up.
With barriers to transportation, coupled with a 50% increase in need because of inflation, he wanted to go a step further and bring it directly to them.
He partnered with DoorDash, who has committed to distributing up to 1,000 meals a day at no cost to 4MyCity or the recipient. It’s called the Food Rescue To Go program.
The package comes with a mix of healthy foods and meal staples, valued at around $70 at a grocery story.
The whole project is led by youth interns.
Naomi Serrano helps pack the meals and whatever else needs to be done.
“I really wanted to help out people … I know I’m young but I want to make a change too,” said Serrano.
Families can sign up online. In just one night, they got 45 applications. Right now the on the go program is only for families within 10 miles of Carroll Park in South Baltimore but they hope to expand.
“The goal of this project is to show people the rescued food, the food we take in that would go in the trash, is still edible and we can actually help families that are facing food insecurity," said Dipnarine.
They also give out bags to homeless residents during code red extra hot summer days, and they have a kids summer meals program for kids who depend on school lunches.
