Farm to Firehouse

Last year, Food on the Stove started a meal delivery service called Farm to Firehouse with the goal of putting healthier meals on firehouse tables. The program was a huge success, feeding over 2000 firefighters and garnering the financial support of Giant, United Healthcare, and Amazon Web Services. In an effort to share this program and other resources with fire departments in neighboring jurisdictions, we created an app that allows firefighters in the Washington Metro Area to select one of our 3 healthy meal options between Sunday 12am and Tuesday 2pm and have it delivered on Friday while they are at work. The service comes at no cost to firefighters. This program has been funded through donations and community partnerships. Every $10 that is raised goes to the protein, produce, and packaging of the meal.

Farm to Firehouse is an innovative meal delivery service that brings healthy food to firefighters on the job. In partnership with local farms, Food on the Stove is able to source, package, and deliver kits for less than $10 per meal. With the support of private donors and corporate sponsors, each Farm to Firehouse box is provided at no cost to the firefighters themselves.

Firefighters are facing a health crisis. Due to the physical rigor of their job and the lack of adequate fitness training or nutrition, their life expectancy is 10-15 years less than every other employee in America. In 2018, 82 firefighters died in the line of duty—33 of whom died from heart attacks.

Firefighting is the only occupation that requires employees to cook all 3 meals while at work. Aiming to limit costs and save time, firefighters end up cooking quick meals made with highly processed ingredients, which create underlying conditions that can lead to hypertension, heart disease, or a heart attack.

Firefighters can’t control sleep deprivation, hazardous environments, or the stress of their job; but they can control diet and exercise. We believe that connecting our heroes to locally sourced food and educating them about nutrition will inspire cultural change in every firehouse. If we can make it easy and inexpensive to cook healthy meals, we can remove the structural barriers that lead firefighters into harmful lifestyle habits. Ultimately, we aim to lower the number of firefighters who die from health-related causes each year.

In homes across America, meal delivery services are increasing in popularity ie. Blue Apron, Sun Basket, Hello Fresh, etc. Millions of families are preparing restaurant quality meals in their own kitchens. At Food on the Stove, we saw an opportunity to apply this logistical innovation to the challenge faced in every firehouse across the nation.

Farm to Firehouse provides firefighters with quality ingredients and healthy recipes to build new habits while they are at work. Each box includes fresh produce, meats, and other items from local farms and food vendors, easily transformed into a delicious meal.

Food on the Stove works closely with local farms and vendors to source, package and distribute the highest quality proteins and produce in the Washington, D.C. area. We collaborate with restaurants and chefs to curate heart healthy recipes to go along with each box.

Thanks to our strategic partnerships, we’re able to produce and deliver each meal for $10. With the generous support of donors who cover those operational expenses, we are able to deliver Farm to Firehouse meals to over 2200 members across 33 firehouses in DC.

This approach means we’re addressing the two primary concerns of firefighters—saving time and money—in a way that builds up their health instead of threatening it.