Bellaire nonprofit has rescued more than $2.6 million worth of food since early April

Since early April, when it started providing take-home, chef-prepared family meals to furloughed and unemployed hospitality workers in Houston, Bellaire-based Second Servings has rescued more than $2.6 million worth of food, the nonprofit announced May 4.

The nonprofit started distributing the meals through its program, Dinner’s On Us, as an extension of the organization’s mission, which focuses on rescue and delivery of excess prepared and perishable food from hotels, caterers, sports venues, distributors and retailers to preapproved charitable meal sites.

“With COVID’s devastating impact on employment, we knew the need for food was skyrocketing beyond the 16% local food insecurity statistic that was present before the crisis,” founder Barbara Bronstein wrote in the announcement.

Second Servings began the program April 9 with an initial target of 10,000 meals every week, all prepared by Hess Corp.’s food services team, as the nonprofit has bought ingredients from Sysco.

The program expanded to hospitality workers in Galveston on April 15 and further expanded to include all Houstonians on April 21.

Meanwhile, the program will continue as long as the need exists and the funding is available, as the nonprofit reports it has helped distribute over 25,000 Dinner’s On Us meals so far and is asking for donations for future efforts.