Since our foundation in 2019, service has been a part of our DNA at Beehive Meals. While we didn’t necessarily expect our meals or our service to have the extensive impact they’ve had on our community, it makes our hearts proud to take a look at all that our freezer meals have done to alleviate hunger for families across the Mountain West.
As one of our founders, Adam Jackson says: “There’s a certain power with food.”
For the past four years, Allyse and Adam Jackson, through Beehive Meals, have given hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of freezer meals. Whether it’s through the annual Season of Giving campaign, working with Show Up Utah to support teachers, or the partnership Beehive Meals has formed with Utah Foster Care, our freezer meals have been gifted in so many meaningful ways.
“This has always been out of our own pocket,” Adam admits humbly, “but there is a cap on what we can do ourselves. We’re a small business, so our potential is limited. But we believe that, together, we can do so much more.”
Welcome, One Big Family.
This year, Allyse and Adam are excited to launch a new arm of Beehive Meals, called One Big Family. “It was created with the purpose of expanding our efforts. To multiply and amplify the amount we can give every year,” Adam explains. Founded and started by Beehive Meals as a sister company, One Big Family has the potential to help more families with meals than ever.
“Between our product and our logistics, we have the ability to reach and feed a lot of people.” Isn’t that the truth? Beehive Meals has made and delivered over 2 million meals across four different states (Utah, Arizona, Idaho, and the Las Vegas area of Nevada). “It’s an extensive logistical reach in the Mountain West.”
With that logistical prowess, One Big Family will collaborate with local community organizations to supply freezer meals for families facing adversity from hunger, grief, and instability. Through generous donations from individuals, businesses, and organizations, Beehive Meals will be able to prepare and deliver meals to more families in need.
The name truly reflects our belief and our goal here at Beehive Meals. “We wanted something that was unifying to the community. Food is universal,” Adam says with a smile, “Everyone has to eat, and it has the power to show love, concern, and alleviate some of the grief we all carry.”
Hunger is a massive challenge to take on. We know that. “There are a lot of organizations that work to combat hunger,” Adam says. “But our version is to focus on the family. Instead of just feeding the kids at school, our specific aim is to help the whole family. By bringing more stability around the home so everyone can benefit.
“We’re a family first charity.”
One Big Family plans to tackle three specific areas of concentration for families: hunger, grief, and instability.
Hunger
One in ten Utah children face serious hunger right now. With 322 Title I schools in the state trying to help support these kids, there are a lot that still slip through the cracks. In fact, more than 16 percent of children in Utah live in “food insecure homes.” Beehive Meals plans to attack that statistic, giving families nutritious meals to serve in their homes.
Grief
There are more than 52,000 children in Utah who will lose a parent before they turn 18. That’s one in every fifteen kids. On top of that, families face deaths of children every day. In 2019, there were around 500 children who passed away, plus around 250 infants each year. The grief can be crippling for families. Food speaks volumes. With a little bit of love, we can show these grieving families that we’re here for them.
Instability
In Utah, there are around 2,700 children in foster care at any given moment. We’d like to help support the 1,300 angel foster/adoptive families in our area through food. We can take the stress out of family dinner and give them an opportunity to nurture and love the children in their care.
The main purpose of founding One Big Family is to allow more members of our community to help us in our mission of building resilient and thriving communities through the power of food.
If you’re an individual (or a family!), you can help by donating once or monthly. Every cent will go directly to families. Beehive Meals will take care of all the food prep, logistics, and delivery.
Are you a company looking to make a big impact? Partner with us! Because we can produce and deliver ourselves, working with another company helps us to extend our reach through funds and support.
Maybe you’re an organization that is working to support families already. We’d love to work with you. Whether it’s at a charitable event or throughout the year, contact us. We can’t wait to hear what your goals are.
“While helping and serving families in our area is something we’ll do no matter what, even without One Big Family, we recognized that with help, we can do more. We can reach more families. We can lift more hands. We can put our arms around those who are grieving and say: we’re here, and we care.”
