When people think of Food is Medicine, they typically think of medically tailored meals and/or produce prescriptions. Those types of targeted solutions address patients with the most acute need for nutritious food. But there’s a much bigger role that Food is Medicine should be playing, according to a report released…
Food Bank News
When Dave Krepcho was the CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, he and his friends in food banking across the country would often reflect on the massive impact of the food banking movement over the years and the need to document it. “Somebody should write a book!”…
It’s fair to say that most food banks generally appreciate the Emergency Food Assistance Program. It’s the only federal nutrition program specifically geared toward food banks, providing them with a wide variety of fresh, frozen and canned foods. Most of the food is healthy, and all of it comes from…
There are lots of reasons for food banks to have farms, and most of them don’t have to do primarily with distributing food. That’s the case at Mid-Ohio Food Collective, which is building a farm of the future consisting of high-tech growing spaces and learning facilities. Spanning seven acres in…
Estimates of how much food is wasted annually in America vary widely, but 100 billion pounds is a nice round number that sums up the situation pretty well. Feeding America would like to see more of that 100 billion pounds go toward addressing food insecurity. To that end, it just…
There are a lot of ways for food banks to get into Food is Medicine. For Second Harvest Food Bank Santa Cruz County, the pathway to Food is Medicine involved CEO Erica Padilla-Chavez’s long background in health and human services; a deep dive into community-building during the pandemic, and a…
At higher education institutions, innovation often happens beyond the classroom, and that’s especially true when it comes to college food pantries. Because of the mostly young demographic being served, high-tech practices like online ordering and scheduled pickups are practically a given at college pantries. College pantries are also leading the…
Like many food pantries, Interfaith Food Pantry Network of Morris Plains, N.J., turned to drive-through distribution during the pandemic. While the drive-throughs were efficient, the pantry’s interactions with clients started to feel hollow to Carolyn Lake, Executive Director. Some clients tried to convey their food preferences as they rolled on…
Like many food banks, Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin began supporting local farmers by buying food from them during the pandemic. Before long, it was running a large farm-to-food bank program, purchasing produce at market rates from 55 farmers. Recently, it figured out another way to support even more…