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…
Food Bank News
As federal funding for food assistance becomes increasingly erratic, food banks are turning to food streams they can more readily control. High on the strategic to-do list for many food banks is to get more food from local grocers, making our recent webinar on “Food Sourcing in a Time of…
A report that Amazon put out earlier this year identified various ways to make charitable meal delivery programs programs more sustainable. One suggestion, gleaned from focus groups of food bankers, was to have third-party meal-delivery providers (like Amazon and DoorDash) provide longer-term agreements to their partner charitable organizations. Amazon delivered…
The five major food banks of New Jersey recently achieved a major goal in their aim to build up more resilient local food systems in their state. The food banks are now sourcing upwards of 50% of the produce they distribute from local farms, an increase from about 35% previously.…
For two years in a row after the pandemic, the amount of revenue generated by the top 300 food banks remained at about $16 billion, following a pandemic-era high of nearly $19 billion. It seemed logical to assume that food bank revenue had settled into a post-pandemic lull, and would…
Our Tableau-driven dashboard of the largest 300 food banks in America is interactive and searchable, while offering many different perspectives of the data. Please note: Feeding America food banks are indicated in orange Independent food banks are shown in blue, and Feeding America affiliates are depicted in green. Please see…
In a rare bit of good news, a report on food bank fundraising from RKD Group showed growth in individual giving across nearly every metric, setting the stage for what observers hope will be a strong holiday giving season. Among the highlights: revenue is up 7% overall, and by 10.6%…
Hunger relief advocates are starting to move beyond their dismay that the USDA will no longer be publishing its annual survey tracking food insecurity, and are starting to consider the various tools that might replace it. The USDA’s Household Food Security Report, thought by many to be a state-of-the-art measure…
Food banks are getting creative as they seek to keep home deliveries going. New distribution patterns, new sources of funding and new technologies are all part of the exploration into how to sustain home deliveries, now that the firehose of pandemic-era support for delivery has retreated. With funding uncertain and…