Creating and implementing a nutrition policy can be a daunting task, but it’s possible to do it step by step, taking advantage of the many tools available to make it easier. HER Guidelines The most important of these may be the Healthy Eating Research guidelines. Released in 2020, the guidelines…
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Food banks broke the record books in 2025 in terms of raising funds and growing donors, outperforming even Covid-era results. The government shutdown during the fall, combined with ongoing reductions in SNAP funding, drove a year-end surge in crisis-driven fundraising, according to RKD Group’s 2025 food bank benchmark report, which…
Many food banks operate agency co‑op purchasing programs, but few fully optimize them. One mid-sized food bank recently demonstrated how much untapped potential these programs hold. Without adding warehouse space, hiring staff, or investing in new infrastructure, the organization increased annual co‑op revenue from $72,000 to more than $600,000. At…
After only one year of having a nutrition policy, Ferndale Food Bank of Washington state can’t imagine operating without one. Getting a nutrition policy in place went hand in hand with maturing from a very small operation into one that now serves nearly 300 people a week. As demand grew,…
The Greater Boston Food Bank has always seen itself as a trailblazer in prioritizing health and nutrition in food banking. It has been among the earliest, if not the first, to have a physician on staff, to have registered dietitians, and to have a nutrition policy. A recently announced four-year,…
GUEST OPINION BY AMY QAZI OF SECOND HARVEST FOOD BANK OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE – Food insecurity is closely tied to chronic disease, and healthcare systems across the country are increasingly integrating social drivers of health screening into clinical care. However, screening alone is not enough. Healthcare providers must also have…
Many people working in hunger relief lament the difficulty of eliminating hunger, a problem that seems like it should be easily resolved, given the world of plenty that we live in. But few respond to the issue by taking on a global research project involving travel to more than 90…
Some of the things that make Food is Medicine attractive to community-based organizations also make it attractive to for-profit companies. Both, for example, would like to use the insurance reimbursements they get for providing healthy food to help sustain their operations. That tension has helped propel an action plan designed…
Reinvestment Partners has been on a mission to make its produce-prescription program a standard healthcare service that can be reimbursed by insurers. The results of its latest clinical trial move it one step closer to that goal, with some caveats. The Durham, N.C.-based nonprofit announced in November that a randomized…