Like many food pantry managers, the ones at Interfaith Food Pantry of the Oranges in New Jersey wanted their clients to be able to choose their foods, as if in a grocery store. But they also saw a lot of obstacles: they didn’t have a dedicated space for their pantry,…
Food Bank News
About a year and a half ago, an anonymous donor handed Three Square Food Bank a windfall and a challenge: $10 million to end senior hunger in and around Las Vegas. Since then, the food bank has revamped its senior hunger program and begun laying the groundwork for systemic change…
Volunteer drivers are proving to be a key ingredient in the success of Feeding America’s MealConnect platform, which is expanding to include another 15 food banks by summer’s end, bringing the total number of food-bank users to 22. Through MealConnect, volunteers are logging in to identify the locations of excess…
About 200 pantries in New York City have shortened wait times and boosted dignity by letting clients reserve times to pick up their food. Now the maker of the service, Plentiful, is seeking to work with food banks across the country to help bring the low-cost reservation system to other…
Like other food banks, Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank is striving to distribute more produce by making it at least 50% of the total amount of food it delivers. It’s getting closer to this goal, thanks in part to a novel way of pushing produce out to its pantries. Its…
In 1977, participation in the two-year-old Summer Food Service Program reached 2.8 million kids. By 2018 — 41 years later — participation in summer meals had advanced to only 2.9 million. Why the slow growth? It’s not due to a lack of need, given that during the school year, about…
In North Carolina, the working poor make up one-third of the workforce, half of residents can’t afford their rent, and wages are lower today than before the recession. Hannah Randall, Chief Executive Officer of MANNA Food Bank in Asheville, NC, suspects the situation is worse than the data suggests in…
The Atlanta Community Food Bank is unleashing a monster that’s infiltrating billboards, TVs and radios. The shape-shifting monster can’t be seen, but is “quiet and sneaky and ugly and mean.” Its first name is Hun, its last name is Grr. Yes, the Hunger Monster is invading Atlanta, via a multi-media…
When Houston Food Bank set out to address root causes of hunger, ranging from poor health to unemployment, it knew it needed to partner with hospitals, schools and clinics. It didn’t realize that getting these community organizations on board would require it to develop a nutrition policy. Now two years…