I started Free Lunch after I had a bout with cancer and was trying to put my life in some perspective. I thought about how important poetry had been to me my whole life and how much it had given to me. So, I thought, I want to give something back to poetry and poets. So that's when I got the idea for Free Lunch. I would give serious poets living in the U.S. a free subscription to my magazine. That list nears 1200 now. Also, I made a promise to myself that I would comment as best I could on all work submitted to me. As a poet myself, I knew how dispiriting it was to get a printed rejection slip with no indication as to why my work was being rejected. I feel that this commitment to commenting on submissions is just one of the unique qualities of Free Lunch."

--Ron Offen, Editor