Second Servings Steps Up For Hospitality Workers

On any given day, throughout Houston, yellow-vested volunteers show up at the end of a food-serving event. They are the food rescue team of Second Servings of Houston. It’s all been coordinated ahead of time: who to talk to and where to find food that never made it out to event attendants. Armed with large aluminum food containers, lids, labels and pens, they transfer unserved meats, vegetables, sides, bread rolls, desserts—all and anything that is perfectly good to eat but would be tossed in the bin otherwise—to containers, close them securely and write content and date on top of each container.

Whether it’s from a distributor, retailer, restaurant, hotel or special event, Second Servings will have a team of volunteers ready to rescue valuable perishable food and safely distribute it to one of many centers for the homeless and food-insecure on their (long) list. 

That is on any normal day, in a normal situation. 

In an unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, Second Servings steps it up with a tailored program. In the first weeks following the mandated closures of schools, restaurants, hotels and all event cancellations, Second Servings saw first-hand how the crisis affected the hospitality industry. The rescue teams were inundated with food donations. Everything was cancelled, nothing was sold and Second Servings realized that the people that always support the nonprofit by donating surplus food, these people in the hospitality industry were now in dire need of support themselves. 

In partnership with Second Serving’s long-time supporters, Hess Corporation and Sysco, the nonprofit launches Dinner’s On Us. It is a program that supplies take-home family meals (serving 7-8) to furloughed and unemployed hospitality workers in Houston. All meals —comfort food like chicken and biscuits, red beans and rice, and pasta with sausage sauce—are prepared by Hess Corporation’s food services team while Sysco Houston is donating and discounting the food being prepared. 

Dinner’s On Us kicks off this Thursday, April 9, when the first 10,000 meals are distributed to unemployed hospitality workers who can present a recent paystub from a local hospitality venue. The family-meal distribution will continue every Tuesday and Thursday for as long as funding allows (see details below).

Please visit secondservingshouston.org/dinnersonus if you would like to support this program financially or to volunteer.

Meal Distribution: When and How 

Every Tuesday and Thursday from 10am to noon, the meals will be distributed in a contact-free drive-through only procedure in the LAM parking lot (702 Avenida De Las Americas) by Second Servings volunteers.

To pick up a family meal, hospitality workers must present a recent paystub displaying the name of their restaurant, hotel, caterer, banquet venue, sports venue or convention center employer. Volunteers will adhere to all recommended social distancing protocols.

Dinner’s On Us continues as long as funding allows.

About Second Servings of Houston

Second Servings is Houston’s only prepared and perishable food rescue organization. Since 2015, the nonprofit has been on a mission to fill stomachs, not landfills, with perfectly edible surplus food. Second Servings picks up unserved and unsold food from distributors, convention centers, sports venues, retailers, hotels, etc. and executes free same-day delivery to more than 90 local shelters, soup kitchens, low-income housing and many other charities. Second Servings of Houston has rescued over 3 million pounds of food, valued at more than $20 million, from over 250 food donors.