At the Food Club Network in Michigan, patrons are not “clients” or “neighbors,” but “members,” highlighting a novel way of doing hunger relief that is about to expand. Seeking to create an experience that resembles typical grocery shopping, the Food Club Network has pioneered well-stocked, healthy-food pantries that offer 30-day…
Posts published in “Strategy”
San Francisco-Marin Food Bank is proving that people with lived experience of hunger have a multitude of expertise to lend to food banks. Like a growing number of food banks, it already taps its participants to tell their personal stories to legislators to advocate for policy change. Soon it will…
Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma was known years ago for having the first production kitchen in the Feeding America network. “We had the first, but we were way behind in what we were doing with it,” noted Jeff Marlow, Chief Executive Officer. That’s no longer the case, with a recent…
ICE in Minnesota has not been good for immigrants, nor for efficient food distribution. The incursion of 3,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into the state beginning in December 2025 has resulted in the arrest of 4,000 people, according to the administration. It has also forced new methods of food…
An effort started by the Tarrant Area Food Bank to increase the amount of produce it distributes has resulted in an unusual three-way partnership, with the potential to benefit other food banks. The Fort Worth, Tex.-based food bank is making it possible for food banks in its region to go…
Less than a year after Hurricane Helene devastated portions of its service area in September 2024, MANNA FoodBank initiated a three-pronged approach to revitalizing its local food systems – supporting area growers, strengthening partner capacity, and – in a more unusual move – building community hubs. Its Essential Foods Program…
Vermont Foodbank is getting more strategic in how it grants funds to partner agencies. During the Covid years, it was like many food banks in channeling money to pantries for a broad range of capacity-building projects to help meet increased demand. Now it is getting more focused in its competitive…
A hurricane wrapped in a pandemic is a fair way to describe the daunting challenge facing food banks as they confront the unfolding disaster of unfunded SNAP benefits. As with hurricanes and Covid, the SNAP disaster loomed in the distance before it became reality, with the possibility that it could…
Among the many benefits of House of Hope’s new food preservation program is a way to create and sell packaged food products, yielding a small revenue stream to support the non-profit’s other programs. The idea of engaging in activity that supports the overall mission of hunger relief, while also allowing…