Restaurant-quality meals from local kitchens, made affordable for every neighbor. Pay full price, use a voucher, or pay what you can on a sliding scale. Pick up at a community center near you.
Good food, with dignity, at a price that fits the moment you're in.
ways to pay
minute order flow
Need a Meal is a community food program that connects local restaurants and kitchens to families and individuals across Sacramento. Restaurants prepare extra portions of their meals. We coordinate the logistics. Community centers serve as pickup points, so the food is close to home.
The goal is simple. Good food, with dignity, at a price that fits the moment you're in.
No single source covers a meal. Every order is funded by a mix of contributions, which keeps the program sustainable and lets us offer flexible pricing.
Neighbors who can pay the full price of a meal. Their payment subsidizes meals for households that pay less.
Local foundations and the City of Sacramento provide block grants that fund a portion of each meal served.
Schools, clinics, churches, and social service agencies receive blocks of vouchers to distribute to families they serve.
Participating kitchens contribute meals at reduced cost as part of their community giving.
The whole process takes about 5 minutes. Here is what to expect.
Filter by dietary needs, pickup site, and date. See what's available today, tomorrow, or later this week.
Choose how to pay. Full price, a voucher code, or sliding scale.
You'll get a confirmation email with a pickup code. Show it at the community center during your pickup window.
If a meal is out of stock at your nearest site: you can wait 1 to 2 days and the meals will be allocated to that site, or you can pick up across multiple sites today.
If you can't make your pickup window: orders can be rescheduled up to 1 hour before pickup from the order page.
If something goes wrong: call the site directly or contact Need a Meal support. We'll make it right.
Every order can be paid in one of three ways. Choose what fits your situation. There's no judgment, and the meal is the same.
Pay the listed price by card.
Most full-price customers tell us paying forward is a quiet way to support neighbors.
Use a voucher code from a partner organization to cover the full meal cost.
No card needed if your voucher covers the order.
Pay an amount that fits your situation. Self-attested. No documents required.
Your answers are private. Used only to suggest a range.
Vouchers are distributed through partner organizations who already work with families across Sacramento. If you're connected to one of these groups, ask whether they have Need a Meal vouchers available.
Family resource centers and school counselors
Community clinic case workers
Distribution day volunteers
North Sac neighborhood services
Local churches and faith communities
Senior services and youth programs
Hospital social workers and discharge planners
Sacramento County Veterans Office
The sliding scale is open to anyone, no referral or voucher needed. Just choose "Pay what you can" at checkout and complete the short survey.
The sliding scale is built on a simple idea: people pay what fits their situation today. We don't ask for proof. We ask a few questions to suggest a fair range, then you pick a number in that range.
Household size, approximate monthly income range, and a few optional life-circumstance checkboxes (caregiver, recent job loss, SNAP, WIC, veteran, etc.).
Based on your answers, you'll see a suggested contribution range for this order. It might be $0 to $20, or it might be the full price minus a small subsidy.
Slide to any amount in your range, including zero. Pay with card if your contribution is more than $0. The rest is covered by program funds.
Your answers stay with Need a Meal. They aren't shared, sold, or used to qualify you for anything else. The amount you pay is never visible to the kitchen or the pickup site staff.
Yes. You can place an order and have a friend, neighbor, or family member pick it up. They just need the pickup code from your confirmation email.
Reach out within 24 hours and we'll either reschedule or refund. Meals not picked up are donated to a partner pantry rather than wasted.
Yes. Meals are kept refrigerated at the site. Take them home and refrigerate within an hour. Most meals are good for 3 to 4 days refrigerated, or can be frozen.
The browse page lets you filter by gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free, nut-free, halal, kosher, low-sodium, and diabetes-friendly. Each meal also lists ingredients and nutrition.
Voucher and sliding scale orders are limited to one order per household per day, with a maximum of 14 meals per week. Full-price orders have no limits.
Contact partners@claymeals.org. We're always looking for organizations who can distribute vouchers and donors who want to fund meals for the community.