Sonoma Family Meal provides 1,000 food-security meals per month.
In our region, more and more families and seniors are struggling with food insecurity, especially after job loss, wildfires, or other life-altering events. At Sonoma Family Meal, we’re here to help with what we know best: comforting, wholesome chef-made meals.
Through partnerships with community organizations like the McDowell Family Resource Center, ELIM, and CURA, we deliver oven-ready meals that ease the burden for hardworking parents and isolated seniors alike.
Our Mission Goes Beyond Meals
We also support local farmers and businesses, rescue food to reduce waste, and strengthen our regional food system by transforming locally sourced ingredients and rescued perishables into nourishing meals for the community.
We Rescue Food & Reduce Waste
Each year, Californians send the equivalent of 2.5 billion fresh, unsold meals to landfills, even as 1 in 5 residents struggle with food insecurity (CalRecycle). To address this, California’s SB 1383 mandates that by 2025, 20% of edible food that would otherwise go to waste must be recovered to feed people in need.
At Sonoma Family Meal, food recovery has been part of our mission from the start. When we were founded in 2017, we began sourcing donated and surplus food from local producers to cook meals for disaster-impacted families and, later, for food-insecure neighbors during times of calm. This commitment expanded significantly in 2022, when we moved into our dedicated community kitchen and headquarters in Petaluma. With increased capacity to rescue, store, and transform food, we’ve doubled our number of food donation partners—now totaling around a dozen—and receive recovered food weekly.
In partnership with Zero Waste Sonoma and local businesses like Lagunitas Brewing Co., we continue to divert high-quality, edible food from the landfill and incorporate it into our nourishing, chef-prepared meals.
By reducing food waste, we not only fight food insecurity, but also help lower harmful methane emissions and support a more sustainable, climate-friendly food system.
