It costs us about 50 cents to make one Nice Rice roll. That means $1 funds two rolls, and $10 funds about 20. The number is low on purpose. Every choice we make, from the recipe to the kitchen to the delivery, is built to keep it there.
What does a donation turn into?
Here is the simple math at about 50 cents a roll:
$1: 2 rolls
$5: 10 rolls
$10: about 20 rolls
$25: about 50 rolls
$50: about 100 rolls
For scale, our last three recorded street drops were 96, 99, and 94 rolls. A $50 gift covers about one of those drops on its own.
Why is a rice roll so cheap to make?
Because the recipe is short. A Nice Rice roll is four ingredients wrapped in foil:
Rice, the base, bought in bulk.
Eggs, for protein.
Butter, for flavor and calories.
Spices, so it tastes like something.
No ingredient is exotic, and all of them buy well in volume. We wrote about why that matters in rice vs. other staples.
How does the kitchen keep the cost down?
Batch cooking. In our commissary kitchen in Lafayette, Colorado, we cook a large run at once instead of a cooler's worth at a time. Then we freeze the rolls, so nothing is wasted waiting for a delivery day. One kitchen session can produce far more rolls than a home kitchen ever could.
How does 50 cents compare to the cost of a meal?
Community Food Share, citing Feeding America, puts the average cost of a meal in Boulder County at $4.45. A rice roll is not a full plated meal, and we will not pretend it is. It is a filling, warm, simple food that a family can heat when they need it, at roughly one ninth of that cost.
Where does the money go?
Donations and store purchases pay for ingredients, kitchen time, packaging, and getting the frozen rolls to Community Food Share in Louisville. There is no other funding behind this.
How can you help?
Pick an amount from above. Give it here, and we will turn it into rolls and record the delivery in our Drops archive.