Feeding America has made it easier for food banks in its network to take advantage of its MealConnect platform by making it automatically available in every zip code of the country. Food banks no longer have to sign up to use the service, which connects extra food from restaurants and…
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Under normal circumstances, the San Antonio Food Bank serves 60,000 individuals a week. At the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, this number skyrocketed to 180,000, and has since normalized at around 120,000. To meet the demand, the food bank has also been sourcing food and raising funds at a rapid…
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…
In an odd coincidence, there are about as many people in America who garden (42 million) as are food-insecure (37.2 million). That works out well for AmpleHarvest.org, a website that seeks to match the abundance of produce grown by home gardeners with local food pantries that could use it. So…
As more food banks make progress in identifying the nutritional quality of the food they distribute, they are running into the same problem that Foodshare of Conn. did: big piles of mixed, donated foods that are not easily ranked. Sometimes known as salvage, these miscellaneous items usually come from retail…
Working with community partners like hospitals and government agencies has become increasingly standard for food banks as they seek to address the many causes of hunger. Now there’s a tool to help them turbo-charge those collaborative efforts. The Urban Institute last month released an interactive map of the United States…
Data and automation are not exactly dirty words at food pantries, but they are far from commonplace. A Des Moines food pantry network, however, is embracing both to help it nudge clients toward healthier options and also energize its advocacy efforts. Like many food pantries, the Des Moines Area Religious…
How often do food banks roll out programs in which 95% of the targeted clients participate? It’s happening in Florida, with nearly all of the 2,055 seniors signed up for a fruit and vegetable purchasing program taking advantage of it, according to the three partners behind the program. The program…
As one of the first food pantries in the country to move to a digital ordering and reservation system, Lutheran Social Services in Ohio is providing time-saving benefits to clients, while cutting costs. LSS, which serves about 2,000 food-pantry clients a month in the Columbus area, started letting clients order…