Slowly but surely, artificial intelligence is starting to show up in food bank operations. The use cases are all over the map. Some food banks are focused on improving personal productivity, while others are addressing food bank-wide efficiency. Some are seeking to upgrade applications used internally, while others are deploying…
Posts published in “Technology”
Nearly two years following Hurricane Helene’s destruction, MANNA FoodBank in Asheville, N.C. is rebuilding with resilience in mind. It is one of a growing number of food banks to utilize rooftop solar panels, in this case to power its newly opened facility, which includes 16,500 square feet for cold storage.…
Long-standing tax incentives for renewable energy may have expired this month, but that has not dampened enthusiasm for solar projects among a growing set of food banks. Commercial solar projects that begin after July 3, 2026 are no longer eligible for a federal tax rebate, which previously allowed organizations to…
Food banking may be fueled by tangible, non-artificial things – like food and relationships. But it turns out that there is also plenty of room for artificial intelligence to play a role in the fundamental act of feeding people. As with any organization, the functions of a food bank include…
GUEST POST FROM ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant promise for the charitable food system. It is arriving now — in donor segmentation tools, demand forecasting pilots, automated grant drafting, and logistics optimization experiments across food banks of every size. But what does the next three…
When Daily Bread Food Pantry in Danbury, Conn., relocated earlier this year to a new space ten times its original size, President Peter Kent suddenly had a huge need to get the pantry’s 370 volunteers up to speed on a host of new protocols. In addition to expanding its days…
Less than three years ago, Chicago-based Vivery Community had one food bank using its free Find Food mapping technology to help people find pantries. Now 82 food banks in 32 states are using the maps, and 6.5 million searches have occurred on the platform since its start. That strong momentum…
St. John’s Bread & Life in Brooklyn, NY, has long been a leader in giving clients an easy, de-stigmatized way to digitally browse and select pantry goods. The agency was a trend-setter as far back as 2000, when it made desktop computers available so clients could place their grocery orders…
Coming out of Covid, many food banks phased out their drive-through distributions. Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana is taking the opposite approach by leaning into its drive-through. There are good reasons to move away from drive-through distributions, as they generally don’t let clients choose their own food, nor access wrap-around…