Fuzzy Comfort
Flannel products offer a warm embrace.
Volunteering while a teenager in her church’s food pantry in rural Iowa, Maria Rose Belding witnessed the paradox of the United States’ food waste problem: She had just trashed expired boxes of mac and cheese while a line of people waited outside. It made no sense. If 133 billion pounds of food is thrown out annually in the United States, and if 1 in 9 Americans struggles with hunger, why then can’t we link and resolve the two issues? “It’s a disgrace,” she says.
A few years later, while a student at American University, Maria Rose created MEANS Database, a free online tool that connects hunger relief agencies with grocers, restaurants, farmers, casinos, event venues and other producers with excess food. Have 50 pounds of grilled chicken left after a rained-out fundraiser? No problem. List it on MEANS— short for Matching Excess And Needs for Stability—and alerts go to area providers that will eagerly claim it and put it to good use.
Maria Rose’s concept has become a fierce resource in fighting hunger, rescuing more than 3 million pounds of food since its start in 2015. More than 3,000 partner organizations are linked in 49 states. At 25 years old, Maria Rose has earned many awards for her efforts, including the President’s Volunteer Service Award in 2014 and 2016.
Passion, commitment and hard work led her to this point. At the start, Maria Rose enlisted the help of coding wiz co-founder,
Grant Nelson, as well as friends at AU who volunteered their time to make MEANS happen.
“I’ve been incredibly lucky,” Maria Rose says, pointing to the 18 people now on MEANS’ staff. Most are young, and the nonprofit provides internships for college and high school students. “I get an immense amount of job satisfaction creating meaningful opportunities for young, talented people,” she says. She stresses the staff’s ability to problem-solve as a key factor in MEANS’ success.
Increased food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the need for their problem-solving skills. Feeding America, a U.S. hunger-relief organization, estimates that the pandemic has left more than 54 million people in the country food insecure this year.
“Things are exponentially worse,” Maria Rose says. The devastation motivated her to delay starting a pre-med program at Georgetown University, so she could continue full time with MEANS. “This is the worst food insecurity in my lifetime.”
In 2020, MEANS has been busy identifying pop-up service programs, partnering with other groups working to identify and connect resources with needs. It is taking on new projects as well; in one, a $250,000 grant from Grubhub allowed MEANS to pay small businesses to produce healthy meals for the hungry.
Maria Rose’s passion remains as unwavering as it was when she was an Iowa teen with an idea.
“At the end of the day, it’s because people are hungry, and that is wrong,” she says.