Looking for ways to save money on groceries? Are you the type of person who’d rather skip the hassle of clipping coupons?
If so, I’ve discovered a few food-buying programs that will help you cut costs.
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How These Programs Work
These programs buy quality food from first-rate suppliers at big discounts. Because of the discounts, they can pass some of the savings along to you. The food items may come fresh, frozen, or packaged.
Orders and distribution are handled by local host sites, which include churches, schools, and other community-action organizations. You can order as many units as you like, and there are no income restrictions.
The menu varies from month to month, so you can enjoy different foods.
How to Make a Purchase
Making a purchase is straightforward.
- You search for a local pickup site and place an order.
- The food gets delivered to the host site.
- You pick up your order at the host site when ready.
Another great thing about these programs is that if you’re an organization that’s interested in offering these food items to your community, you can partner with these programs by applying to be a host site.
Lastly, check out each program and see if their menu items suit your taste and dietary needs before buying.
Okay, here are some food-buying programs to check out.
Family Table Food Ministries
The Family Table Food Ministries isn’t widely available but this faith based ministry has a lot of locations in New York, New Jersey and Georgia.
The menu varies from month to month and you can count on getting meats, vegetables, side dishes, and a dessert item at a minimum. You may purchase as many units as you would like – be it one box or ten – so the program can be tailored to your needs.
On a pre-determined day each month, the food arrives on refrigerated trucks at your local Host Site, where you arrive at a pre-set time with your receipt and pick up your pre- boxed food from the volunteers there. Each host sets their own order deadline; pick up time and other program specifics.
Share Food Program
site: sharefoodprogram.org
The Share Food Program network is mainly in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, and they provide reduced rate food boxes to help people get proper nutrition.
Sample Menus
- Value Package – $20 Ground beef, chicken breasts, pork chops, tureky, eggs, fresh veggies.
- Produce package – $20 Fresh veggies and fruit, eggs, onions, potatoes.
- Grill Box – $28.00 Steaks, hot dogs, chicken breasts, pulled pork, hamburgers.
They do accept cash, credit, and EBT SNAP benefits.
HIS Food Ministries
site: hisfoodministry.net
Another faith based food ministry that is mainly based in host locations in WV, NC, GA, SC, VA, MD, DE, OH, PA.
The Box Food Ministries
site: theboxfoodministries.com
This program is most limited in scope, as it’s only available in Georgia. But if you live in their area, you’ll be able to buy their boxes.
More Food Ministries
- Share Food Program (Philly): sharefoodprogram.org
- Bountiful Baskets (several states): bountifulbaskets.org
- Azure Standard: AzureStandard.com
- Fare For All (Minnesota): FareForAll.org
- Ruby’s Pantry (Minnesota/Wisconsin): rubyspantry.org
- Thrive Market: ThriveMarket.com
- Glacier Grown Montana/Idaho: glaciergrown.com
- Know Thy Food Coop (Portland, OR): knowthyfood.coop
- Good Food Box (Canada): ottawagoodfoodbox.ca
- Community Food Smart (Canada): CommunityFoodSmart.com
I hope this helps you get groceries at much lower costs!
We’ve actually checked out the Angel Food Ministries boxes via a local church and the food is good, high quality food. The only caveat I would add in there, however, is that you have to choose one of their pre-set boxes and you get what you get..
Good to hear Peter.
Do you think the quality and amount of food was worth the price?
We’ve only done it that once, and for what you get I think it’s worth it, yes.
Angel food ministries is closed since 2011 when the family who started it were sentenced to 7 years in prison for fraud.
Yes, thanks for the update. This article was written before all of that happened. The article has been updated and they have been removed.
Interesting list of options. Thanks for sharing. What about CSA or Meat Purchasing programs or Farmers Markets?
Thanks Jenna. I’m not too familiar with CSA or meat purchasing programs, but I’ll look into it.
This is awesome! The first time I have heard about this. What a great idea and definitely amazing for those in need of help.
Thanks Jon. Are you going to try one of these boxes?
There is an Angel Food Ministries pickup site right in my town. I was just looking at the menu and it does seem like a good deal. EXCEPT, I don’t see us using all of the items included…so it might be more of a waste than a bargain.
We have used the Angel Food program in the past for several months. It works as advertised, but there are a few things to be aware of.
1) You have to pre-pay for the food box 2 – 4 weeks in advance, so the location ordering the food (usually a church or charity) has a enough lead time to get the order into the Angel Food system. Once the time frame to pay has passed you usually cant get a box.
2) Pre-pay locations are limited. The church we bought from had a member who had two local retail stores; so he allowed people (the public) to pay at the stores. Otherwise the church was the only pay location.
If you pre-pay at a church, they may have limited hours when there is someone there to take the money and give you the Angel Food receipt. (They may not want for everyone to have access to the Angel Food money so they limit it to one or two people.)
3) You have to pick up the boxes on the specific delivery date and during a 2 or 3 hour time frame. Any unclaimed boxes are turned over to a local charity (food bank, homeless shelter, food pantry, etc.).
4) Some location may have a lot of people asking to buy extra boxes each delivery day, so they may over order by 10 or 20 extra boxes; so they may allow you to buy a box even though you did not pre-order it.
5) You show up and the food is laid out on a long row of tables. You get a box (or more if you pre-paid for more) and start at one end. You slide the box along the tables, one table after another. Every regular box gets the same set of items, e.g. a box of mac-n-cheese, a jar of peanut butter, a 2 lb bag of rice, dry pasta (usually spagehetti, one dessert item (usually either a pie or cookies). They box is usually close to full with the 15 or so items. If it is to heavy to carry or you have more than one box (some people buy multiple boxes for friends, neighbors, needy people, etc.), they will help you get them to your car.
6) They do not pre-fill the boxes, because the food that is not picked up (people forget the date or drop by to late, etc.) is donated. Pre-filling boxes would crate needless work for the volunteers and for the charity receiving the boxes. having all of the donated food separate by food item, i.e. all the rice in one box, all the mac-n-cheese in one box, etc., makes it easier on the charity.
7) Lots of the same things are repeated every month, especially breaded chicken, i.e. 5 lbs of chicken nuggets, 3 lbs of chicken planks, 4 lbs of chicken tenders, etc. At one point we had around 30 lbs of breaded chicken in the freezer.
8) They may also offer other box options, such as a “meat box.” Several steaks, sausage, chops, bacon wrapped steaks, small brisket or roast, etc.
9) Another option was frozen meals. They looked just like what you get at the store (a frozen meal in a plastic tray with a clear plastic wrap on top. Cost wise it was not much cheaper than what you would pay in the store. In the store you could get them right now
I suggest you give it a try at least once to see what you think.
We used to volunteer to fill food boxes.
Then cancer and illness kept us from volunteering.
We would like to volunteer to fill food boxes or back packs for children.
Darren & Money Matters Guy,
Quality – The quality is fine.
It is not premium, but it is not bad or dangerous, i.e. nothing moldy/spoiled/out of date, etc. They may either be an unknown brand, or a no name product (meaning they contracted with the chicken processing plant so no brand name or store name is on the package).
Is the amount of food was worth the price?
Cost – if you were already going to buy the specific items that are in the Angel Food box, you would get them cheaper via Angel Food (they can buy in vast quantities/bulk). But if you only use some of them items, you may be better of buying what you would actually use from the grocery store; and also not have to worry about missing the Angel Food pickup time frame.
Ex 1: We do not eat a lot of peanut better, so getting a jar of peanut butter in every box, every month meant we had several jar sitting around.
Ex 2: We got burned out on breaded chicken and that was in most every months box.
Caveat – We did Angel Food a couple of years ago, so things may have changed since then.
I suggest you give it a try at least once to see what you think.
If you can please update this article. I used to buy food from anglefood and it was a HUGE HELP!! the amount and price was great!! tasty too. we may not have used everything in the package, but what we didn’t use we would give to friends or homeless. since Anglefood and Treasure Box closed I can not find any of these in Orange County CA. we would have to go 60 miles to the closest place, but I think I may start going to the one in Hemet. it was nice to buy a months worth of food for only $200 and we would get maybe another $100 at the store. but for a family of 3 to have all the food we needed for less than $300 a month was great.
I am in vista california. Where can I purchase angel food boxes??
Try More than Apples, an awesome food distribution nonprofit in Escondido that serves North County and beyond! They are available at facebook.com/groups/2203041636611361
I live in West Palm Beach, FL & am in desperate need of locating a local place that I can purchase low cost food boxes!! I’m a disabled mom of 5 please help!!!!
How can I have my own food organization?What do I have to do ?
I bought these boxes of and my kids and myself loved them and would love to continue to buy them now in 2018. We are homeless and would appreciate some delicious food! I am disabled and my daughter is trying to get a job and we have no car to got her to and from. I only receive 70.00 in Snap and pay 500 in rent and get 700 for disability, so as you can see we need help ASAP!! Can you advise me of where we can get these boxes again I would greatly appreciate any help I can get. We have no grandparents our family to help us.
Angelfood ministries helped a lot when i was in texas trying to feed my kids alone ….now i find myself in south central florida with no programs like this. And really need it. Do you have any advice where to find any programs like this that accepts food stamps as well?
I went with your food program a few years back and thought it was great, I’m looking to get back on track with you again if possible, can you please get back ahold of me to get started. Thank you lots,
I’m part of a non profit that is looking to gain access to a share food program type program in the north west Kansas rural areas. Are there any in our area, and if not…how can we go about starting one?
Do you have a drop site in Texarkana texas
Has King Food ministry and One harvest shut down? Im looking for a food box ministry around N.E. oklahoma.