Food banks are keeping calm and carrying on amid uncertainty around directives from the new administration that could threaten federal hunger relief programs. The federal government foots the funding for a host of feeding programs, including TEFAP to provide food to food banks; SNAP, the behemoth nationwide nutrition assistance program;…
Posts published in “Advocacy”
There has always been an undercurrent of anxiety among undocumented populations seeking food assistance. Food Bank News noted underground food distributions for the undocumented as far back as 2020, when the pandemic pushed the need for assistance to new heights. Now that anxiety has been ratcheted up, as directives from…
Many food bank leaders arrive at the position because they have a background in fundraising or sometimes finance or banking. Healthcare and the military also mark the pathways of some leaders. For Andrea Williams, the newly named President of Oregon Food Bank, the throughline is her focus on racial and…
It’s not an easy decision for a food bank to take the lead on a major research project. Such studies can be expensive, drawing resources away from the more immediate goal of distributing food. At D.C.-based Capital Area Food Bank, an investment in research is paying off in big ways,…
Our scan of the top 100 food banks (by revenue) uncovered a number of features food banks are adding to their websites to advance their advocacy efforts, including animated videos, advocacy-action point trackers, and surveys of the general public. These findings are part of our annual look at how food…
When Osvaldo Grimaldo joined Houston Food Bank just over a year ago as its inaugural Civic Engagement Specialist, he had his work cut out for him. In surveying agency partners and community members on their attitudes toward voting, Grimaldo uncovered a general lack of knowledge and resources. Of the more…
Linda Nageotte may have been named President and Chief Operating Officer of Feeding America last July, but in practice she is more like Convener in Chief. One of her mandates is to develop a strategic framework for the Feeding America network of 200 food banks and additional affiliated food banks,…
Second Harvest Heartland of Minnesota has had enough. Last year, the nation’s seventh-largest food bank recorded 7.5 million visits to its food pantries, up from 5.5 million the year before, and double the number of 2021. “It’s unsustainable,” said Allison O’Toole, the food bank’s CEO. It’s why the food bank…
It’s fair to say that running a food pantry, even as a volunteer, is a time-consuming job, making it difficult to plan beyond the immediate tasks at hand. But it’s also evident that a new spirit of collaboration between front-line emergency food providers is percolating. Sharing information, establishing a unified…