My daughter told me about this as friends of hers use this and swear by it.  Until recently there wasn't a location near my home.  However with the recent economic disaster, many new locations have been added.  There may be one near you.  This month I'm ordering for the first time and am very excited about it.  If this is as good as I've been told, I know where I will be getting a fair amount of my groceries each month!  

Angel Food Ministires:   http://www.angelfoodministries.com/

The deal is there is enough food in the "Signature Box" to feed a family of 4 for a week for $30. Since it is only my husband and I, this will go a bit further for us. You have to order and pay in advance.  They will take food stamps if that applies to you. You have to bring your own box/bags at pick up time. Each month the menu changes so you are nothing getting the same things every time you order. The only item I've been told is usually not so great is the unspecified 'dessert' item.  Not usually anything to brag about, but i'm told every thing else is quality and you can't beat the prices. 

You have to order one of the standard offering in order to qualify to order the extra packages they offer including meat only packages, all produce packages, etc. They even have one for all frozen dinners. Check it out. it could really help strech your food dollars each month!

I've tried and tried to get a friend of mine to do this but they just haven't. a coworker does it - his church is one of hte distribution points and his wife picks up their stuff and his mil's..I'm usually working and no one to pick it up for me - he says some has to be frozen or refrigerated. I keep looking though because some of that stuff I'd actually eat or could give away. but my friend has a hubby and baby, dad, bil, and sister and niece living there..that food would save them some money and someone would eat all the stuff with that many people.

I did this for a long time -- it worked real good for us when there were 4 of us -- now with just 2 we eat differently and didn't use everything up but every so often we still get a box.  

The desert used to be good off and on -- I loved when it was one of those ready to bake pillsbury brownie type things or a pie once.   The desserts I didn't like were the little cookies.  

The main thing I liked was the meat!   My husband really liked it because of the variety -- in fact getting the angel box gave us different ideas and variety since I was in a rut with my cooking.

Susanna...Check to see when the pick up is...usually it is on Friday evenings or Saturday mornings. From what I understand, yes most of the items are frozen or cold pack items.  Then again, a cooler in your trunk would take care of that nicely.

I'm really hoping this works out as well as I'm told.  It would mean a huge savings in my food bills.  Just because you have to eat, shouldn't mean it should cost the world!!!

the place I was gonna go is Saturday and I work every other Saturday though I may see about a closer location to my job and do the cooler thing.just run out and pick it up then come back to work.

I saw on another thread on this site that someone said that they had to wait a long time in line to get their food so I didn't know what to expect when we got our first order. We were pleasantly surprised  that it wasn't the  case where we pick up ours.  Not only isn't there a long wait there but our orders are already sorted in boxes and they have extra volunteers to help you to your car. They also have a table where you can put any food that came with your order (like the box of cookies) that you know you won't use so that someone else can use it.  We really love their breaded chicken fingers that you can get  as one of the seperate meat deals some months. Occasionally they do substiute items but they seem to give something of more value when they do. For instance, in the fresh produce box one month, they ran out of  fresh broccoli and gave us a 10 pound bag of potatoes instead. And one time they didn't have the one kind of steaks that were supposed to be in the deal and substitued a better cut of steak and instead of four we got eight.

One other thing I like about ordering from them.... I have the list of foods that are coming and so I can plan what meals I will make ahead of time and  make a  list of whatever other items I need to pick up beforehand to complete the meals (such as hamburger rolls, barbecue sauce etc).  That saves me trips to the store and the hassle of figuring out what  to make every meal.

Chris, there is a plan now for seniors and/or smaller families.   I think I'll try it in May.  In April I will be out of town on pick up day.

I use them and they are great, really helped on the food bill!

I'm so glad that I started this thread.  Its great to hear other peoples experiences.  I suspect that next month I will be getting more then just the general box.  If all goes as I suspect I will be added to Aprils order to include the produce box as well. 

Thanks to everyone who posted!!!!!

I just sent them an e-mail asking that they please hurry and come to my area. I'm in Sac Calif,

Nicole

My family has been participating in Angel Food Ministries for quite some time and I will definitely recommend it. 

We live in kind of an odd area in that its rural housing with junkers and chickens in the yard and the other end of the street are million dollar plus homes in gated communities. I know people from all walks of life and both ends of the road that participate in AFM. I know some people have a pride issues but this shouldn't be the case. This isn't charity or public assistance  and you aren't taking resources away from someone who needs it more since the ordering is done in advance and they don't order more than necessary.  This is just shopping on sale / in bulk that you don't go to the store for.  Buy what you want and pocket the savings. 

I will honestly say that I have had one or two occasions that we had to wait for delivery since they were running behind in our area or where we had to come back for a second pickup because certain things it didn't make it correctly onto the truck.

In our struggling economy please consider participating.  The value is extraordinary.  Many ministries in our area buy 10-12 boxes and pass them out to families in need.  The money wouldn't go as far if this weren't such a great program.

I know more locations have opened in recent months. When I first moved to Groton the nearest location was over 20 miles away, so I didn't particiate.  Recently, very much be accident, I clicked on the link in my favorates.  so long as I was at the site I decided to see what they had this month, maybe it would be worth the drive.  I discovered not only was there one 2.5 miles from my home, but that several had opened in my town and in the surrounding area. 

If you looked into this before and passed on it due to location issues, please give it anohter try.  In many ways like Adam said, it is a great service and if there is enough particiaption not only will you save money but you may keep the service open to others in finiancial difficulties. It really can be a way to help those in need.

Adam...thank you for your imput!!!

bump

I'm curious as to the ingredients in the foods.  When someone gets their box can they tell me if it's full of corn syrup & trans fats?  We've cut the latter out of our diet and cut back on the former.  My mom is allergic to corn and corn syrup was finally ID'd as a migrane trigger for a good friend, so combine that with the fact most healthy foods don't have it--we just avoid it. 

We're interested, but don't want a box full of foods we'd never consider buying.  The items look fine, but I know from the store there are some brands I won't touch with a 10' pole and some I will happily buy.  The price isn't always a guideline as to which is which --sometimes the generic has the better ingredients!

Well I got my first box from them yesterday.  If anyone can tell by looking at something what is in it I'll take my hat off to them.  Now there is an allergy free box in which the most common allergins have been omited.  A lot of what they offer is not pre-prepared, although some is.  I guess for you it would be a matter of what was being offered each month.

Ah, the food doesn't come with an ingredients list on the side?

I saw the allergy-free box.  I was rather surprised everything was breaded, since I would have expected wheat (along with milk and nuts) to be avoided.  I'm not sure what allergens it was free of.

I have a friend in Michigan who uses it and then gives to her neighbors what they don't use... She had told me about the program and I checked into it, but it's not in our area (northern CA).

anyways,  a few days after that conversation, I was looking online at Living on a Dime and they had a link to HillbillyHousewife.com.  She posts menus on there for the Angel Food boxes, so if you're having trouble figuring out what to make - check it out. I printed out a bunch anyways, just to have the menus. figured I could use them even without being part of the program.

btw. love this section of the forum - haven't ventured in here before.

I'll have tocheck out living on a dime! I've heard of hillbilly housewife and need to get back on that site too for motivation!

If you belong to a church or other type of community group you may be able to set up your own host site.  There is a link on the Angel Food Ministries web site to become a "host site" so if there isn't one in your area, look into starting one! its a great way to meet people and do something good for the community as well. 

I told my mother about this, she lives in NJ I'm in CT, there isn't one in her area however a women she works with is a minister, she is setting her church up as a host site.  Not sure what all is involved but, if you have a group that can work together, you may be able to make this happen.

I LOVE AngelFood!!!  Last month (April) was the first time I ordered and I was so thrilled with everything I got.  The fresh fruit and veggie box is just fantastic!  so much food for so little money!  This month's order wil be in onSaturday and I am really looking forward to getting it and thinking up so new meal ideas.

We do Angelfood.  I love the regular boxes and some of the meat specials.  I've gotten the fruits and veggies box twice now, but I don't think I'll get it again.  I ended up throwing away some items that went bad too quickly, some things were a bit frozen because they were packed next to frozen things on the truck... some of the items were things I just didn't know how to use, or we didn't care for.  it just didn't work well for us.  But the frozen and dry goods have been AWESOME for us!  We have been stocking up on freezer meats for grilling season.  Can't wait for some yummy grilled meats!

We use it too and I wish I had a deep freeze!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We also have a foodsaver so when the food gets home I foodsaver most of it before sticking it in the freezer.

The ONLY thing I don't like is that you have to buy one of the regular boxes to be able to buy the meat boxes. I would really prefer to just buy the seperate meat boxes but hey.. it's still an awesome deal and really yummy.

I've looked at this before but with my hours getting cut at work and the price of some of the food going up, I decided to check on this again. even though the closest one to us is about 45 miles away, I think with our coolers and ice, we might be getting a box or two pretty soon.

Dayna maybe you can find some others near you wanting to do it and split the cost of gas with them...and with enough people you may be able to get a distribution center closer to you...

I have also tried Angel food, and I realize it is a big help in this economy right now.  But I do want to caution you about health concerns.  Read the labels - most of the packaged convenience foods are high in sodium.  My last box included a box of beef flavored rice & pasta.  The sodium content was 1100 mg PER SERVING.  4 servings in this box.  That is way too high.  This is just one example.  I stopped buying angel food because I want to eat healthy.  I've gotten onions that were too small and very hard.  I do not mean to bash angel food, but right now it is best to go shop at your local farmers market or U-pick farms for healthier low cost eating. I do agree with Tiffanie about not wanting to have to buy the regular box just to get the fruit/veggie box.  If they did not have that restriction, I woul buy the fruit & veggies and the meats.  Hope my opinion does not offend anyone.