HelloFresh Provides Free Meal Kits to Culinary Students

HelloFresh is bringing the classroom to culinary students' doorsteps with the launch of @TheTable, a joint partnership with the Food Education Fund and the Fund for Public Schools. The partnership provides free meal kits to 1,000 students enrolled in culinary education programs at New York City public high schools with Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs.

Starting now through the end of the school year, HelloFresh meal kits will be delivered directly to students’ and teachers’ homes on a regular basis, providing identical fresh ingredients for hands-on experiential learning that can take place in both a blended or fully virtual classroom setting. Participants will receive both vegetarian and non-vegetarian recipes.

“We are proud to partner with the Food Education Fund and the Fund for Public Schools to create @TheTable, a program designed to enrich culinary education and support our future culinary leaders during this very challenging school year,” said Uwe Voss, CEO of HelloFresh US. “With strong support of the New York City Department of Education, we’re excited to bring a hands-on learning experience to culinary students as they finish out the school year.”

@TheTable supports students enrolled at 13 high schools: Food and Finance High School, Long Island City High School, Bronxdale High School, George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education, Academy of Hospitality and Tourism, John Dewey High School, William E. Grady Career and Technical Education High School, August Martin High School, Port Richmond High School, Tottenville High School, Brooklyn STEAM Center, Coop Tech, and School for Tourism and Hospitality.

“We’re excited to kick off this innovative public-private partnership advancing the future career success of 1,000 CTE high school students across New York City,” said Julie L. Shapiro, CEO of the Fund for Public Schools. “Grateful to HelloFresh and the Food Education Fund for coming to the table to ensure our young people receive hands-on culinary experiences to feed their body and mind, at home or in the classroom.”

With the majority of the students living in historically underserved neighborhoods, the HelloFresh boxes are also designed to provide extra meals for the students and their families beyond what’s needed for educational instruction. Each box contains enough ingredients to create four full servings of two separate meals, providing participants with 64,000 meals throughout the duration of the program.

“Food Education Fund is thrilled to be able to bridge the gap between private and public stakeholders in order to bring 1,000 New York City culinary public high school students fresh food and innovative recipes from our friends at HelloFresh,” said Eliza Loehr, executive director of the Food Education Fund. “These meal kits will allow students to continue their culinary education at home while also providing 64,000 meals for their families.”

“This is the kind of innovative public/private partnership that helps our students achieve and our schools shine,” said Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer. “Thanks to all participants who are ensuring that high-quality culinary education continues in our public high schools even with remote learning. The added benefit of healthy and delicious meals for so many families makes this an even more important and exciting program.”

“We know that hands-on education keeps students of all ages engaged and excited about learning, and during my time as borough president I have been proud to support projects throughout various schools in Brooklyn that teach students how to grow, harvest and cook their own food,” added Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. “That’s why I’m so excited about this new initiative, which will give students around the city an opportunity to learn how to make healthy, nutritious meals at home. I thank HelloFresh and the Food Education Fund for their commitment to giving our public school students the opportunity to take their health into their own hands, especially during such an unprecedented time for our city.”

In 2020, HelloFresh delivered more than 600 million meals and reached close to 5.3 million active customers. The company said that revenue more than doubled for fiscal 2020 in the United States (up 102.3% year over year) and globally (up 107.3% year over year) as the company saw revenue rise to $1.3 billion. Adjusted gross operating profit rose to $610 million, more than a tenfold increase compared with 2019.

HelloFresh operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Australia, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, France and Denmark. The company was founded in Berlin in November 2011 and went public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in November 2017. It has offices in New York, Berlin, London, Amsterdam, Sydney, Toronto, Auckland, Paris and Copenhagen. HelloFresh is is No. 88 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer's 2020 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.