Hotlines, text services and even navigation apps are among the tools food banks are using to better connect people to their neighborhood pantries during the pandemic. The tools go beyond the basic pantry locators typically found on many websites, and often take advantage of the accessibility mobile technology offers. In…
Posts published in “Covid-19”
Second Harvest Heartland of Minnesota and others are proving that a food bank does not necessarily need a kitchen to play a major role in distributing thousands of freshly prepared meals. Using Feeding America’s MealConnect platform, Second Harvest Heartland is sourcing large donations of bulk food and guiding it toward…
For Steven Kullberg, Chief Operating Officer at Food Bank of the Rockies, a new government program promising over 3 million pounds of produce, milk and dairy from American farmers each month to supplement the food his organization provides to communities in northern Colorado and Wyoming was too good to pass…
Ever since it merged with a restaurant serving free community meals a year and a half ago, Feeding Tampa Bay envisioned that meal preparation would be a bigger part of its future. Suddenly, that future is here. In response to the pandemic, the food bank is now coordinating the production…
At least one recipient of USDA grant money to package and deliver boxes of fresh produce to non-profits via the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program should be well known to food banks, especially those along the Northeast corridor. The Mid-Atlantic Regional Cooperative, with a central warehouse in Philadelphia, Pa., announced this…
As food banks seek to bring food straight to patrons’ homes, they are discovering that one of the most difficult aspects of home delivery is planning out the routes that drivers should take. Turns out there’s an app for that. In California, both the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County and…
With virtually every food bank in the country facing skyrocketing demand, it’s the rare food bank with enough disaster-relief capacity to be able to distribute food outside its usual operating area. Midwest Food Bank, headquartered in Normal, Ill., is an exception. In partnership with the Salvation Army, Midwest expects to…
The discord of farmers plowing under excess crops as food banks struggle to meet soaring demand is one image that Andrew Morehouse, Executive Director of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, does not have to worry about. Each year, about 40 small farms in the area donate half a million…
The lowly cardboard box plays a starring role in the USDA’s plan to purchase $3 billion worth of commodities from the nation’s farmers and pass it along to food banks and other hunger-relief organizations. The Coronavirus Food Assistance Program or CFAP, announced late last week, requires wholesalers and distributors to…