Houston’s largest mass meal relief program
providing chef-prepared meals to houstonians in need
Since 2015, Second Servings of Houston has been addressing food insecurity in Houston’s most vulnerable communities by delivering surplus prepared and perishable food at no cost to local charities, and continues to do so. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we partnered with long-time supporter, Hess Corporation, to create the “Dinner’s On Us” program to provide take-home, chef-prepared family meals to Houstonians in need.
On April 9, we launched the “Dinner’s On Us” to serve the community who donate surplus food to us throughout the year: hospitality workers. We conducted a twice-weekly contact-free drive-thru distribution in Downtown Houston and coordinated a group of volunteers to distribute the frozen meal boxes. In addition, we partnered with the Galveston Restaurant Association and provided meals every Friday for the the Galveston hospitality community. Within two weeks, we received additional funding from the community and private foundations, such as the Leslie L. Alexander Foundation, and were able to expand the program to provide meals to ALL Houstonians in need on Thursday, April 23.
“Serving Houston’s hospitality workers is what inspired the Dinner’s On Us program,” Second Servings Founder Barbara Bronstein said. “However, thanks to the generous community support we’ve received, we’re now able to expand the program to the entire community in need!”
The distributions took place for eight consecutive weeks on the LAZ parking lot off Avenida De La Americas. Throughout the summer, we hosted pop-up meal distributions across the city to reach new neighborhoods and communities. Beginning September 3, we partnered with the Houston Rockets to conduct monthly drive-thru distributions at Toyota Center through the fall. The estimate that we reached over 4,000 families between September-November.
The Dinner’s On Us program will continue as long as the need and funding exist. Stay tuned for more.
Since April 2020, we have conducted 40 drive-thru food distributions and provided over 150,000 meals to the community.
the chefs
The hearty chef-prepared, family-sized dinner boxes are prepared by longstanding partner, Hess Corporation. The global energy company is donating the services of its Food Services Team, and the raw ingredients are being purchased by Second Servings through Sysco, another longstanding supporter. After the meals are prepared by Hess’ chefs, the dinner boxes are frozen for maximum food safety and longevity.
the dinner boxes
The “Dinner’s On Us” dinner boxes are freshly prepared, frozen family meals that serve eight people. Each meal is hearty comfort food, including dishes such as chicken ‘n biscuits, red beans & rice with sausage, penne pasta marinara with sausage and vegetables and many other options. All food is bought from Sysco and prepared by Hess Corporation’s Food Services team.
houston rockets partnership
Together, Second Serving and the Houston Rockets have conducted three drive-thru food distributions at Toyota Center and served over 4,000 families in need. We’ve distributed over 60,000 meals (equivalent to 7,500 “Dinner’s On Us” dinner boxes); 10,000 salad kits; 3,000 gallons of milk; 42,000 lbs. of assorted Brothers Produce; 40,000 KN-95 face masks and much more.
support the program
If you would like to help us continue to provide freshly prepared family meals to Houstonians in need, you may visit our donation page by clicking the button below. If you would like to sponsor or become a partner for the “Dinner’s On Us” program, please contact Second Servings Founder Barbara Bronstein at bbronstein@secondservingshouston.org.
thank you to our generous supporters for partnering with us to serve those in need
The “Dinner’s On Us” Program is supported by Second Servings and Hess Corporation, as well as:
BHW Capital, a full-service commercial real estate firm, which secured the meal distribution site, as well as provided financial support.
ACME Party & Tent Rental, one of the largest party equipment rental providers in the Houston Area, which supplied the equipment needed to safely direct traffic flow in the distribution area.
PREFCO Distribution LLC, a meat and seafood distributor is providing freezer storage assistance and meal transportation, at no cost.