Angel Food Ministries

Angel Food Ministries has been mentioned several times in the comments on my blog. I'm not familiar with the program personally, but reader Andrea is. She has been very kind an wrote a quest post explaining the entire program. Thanks, Andrea!

Have you heard about Angel Food Ministries? It is a non-profit, non-denominational organization dedicated to providing grocery relief and financial support to communities throughout the United States. By buying food from first rate suppliers at substantial volume discounts, Angel Food Ministries is able to provide families with approximately $65 worth of quality nutritious food for $30.

Each month, a new menu is available. Generally, one box of Angel Food assists in feeding a family of four for about one week or a single senior citizen for almost a month.

The “Signature Box” consists of fresh, frozen and packaged food. Angel Food is purchased from the nation’s top food suppliers. The contents of this box change monthly. The cost for the Signature Box is $30.

The “Senior/Convenience Box” consists of 10 fully-cooked meals, nutritionally balanced for senior citizens – each meal contains 3oz. of protein, plus starch & 2 veggies or fruit, and dessert. The cost for this box is $28. These are great for singles and people who need the convenience.

The “Allergen Free Box” consists of frozen & dry mix allergen-free foods which have been processed to eliminate eight top food allergens: peanuts, soybeans, milk, eggs, fish, crustacean, tree nuts and gluten (wheat, rye, and barley). The cost for this box is $23.

The “Premium Seafood Variety Box” consists of 6lbs. of ready to cook premium seafood and costs $35. Recently two more boxes were added to the menu. The “Just 4 Me – After School Box” consists of an assortment of child-friendly snacks, perfect for after school or any time. The “Just 4 Me – After School Fruit & Veggie Box” consists of an assortment of healthy fruit and veggie snacks especially for kids.

Each month, Angel Food Ministries also offers “specialty boxes” of steak, chicken, pork or other meats. A Fruit & Veggie box is also offered.

There are no restrictions, conditions or forms to fill out to purchase Angel Food. The food relief program is open to one and all. Everyone is encouraged to participate. Some host sites even encourage participants to apply the money they saved to help someone else in need.

One very important aspect of this program is that, unlike other ministries, participating does not mean that you are taking away money or food from someone else whose need may be greater. Rather, by participating, you actually enable them to purchase food at better prices, which benefits everyone. In addition, the host-site receives $1 per box ordered for their benevolent fund. ( Fellowship at Weldon Spring uses the funds to purchase extra boxes of food for those that cannot afford it.)

Anyone may purchase an unlimited number of boxes of Angel Food by placing an order with a local Angel Food host site. Orders can be placed by mail, in person, or online. (If using Food Stamps, you must order/pay in person)

There is a processing fee of $2 for online orders. AFM has been providing coupon codes for online ordering. These codes will usually cover the processing fee. I have found the codes each month on Retail Me Not.

Here are the pros and cons of this program, from my point of view.

• It includes a lot of prepackaged, prepared foods. If you’re more of a cook-from-scratch kind of family, this ministry is probably not for you.


• It is A LOT of food, for a great price, but because you cannot control the variety, you must be willing to try new things to get the full value of the program.


• The program plans your menu for you based on the box contents.


• Most of your grocery shopping can be done once a month in one location rather than hunting down sales with coupons. You will still have to purchase some items from the store.
  

If you are currently on a very tight grocery budget, cook everything from scratch, combine coupons and store deals and shop multiple stores to get the very best deal, you probably won’t find these prices to be better than what you currently do. However, if you simply are not able to do those things, you may want to give it a try.

I personally order a Signature Box every month. We love the program, but we were doing all of our shopping at Save A Lot or Aldi's before I started couponing I just haven’t let go of the AFM program since I started couponing It is where I get most of our meat products from.

Has anyone else tried Angel Food Ministries, and if so, what did you think?