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…
Food Bank News
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…
Taking cues from both Trader Joe’s and the food justice movement, Northwest Harvest of Seattle is opening a new food distribution center on June 24 that aims to offer a respectful, welcoming and even fun grocery shopping experience. The name of the outlet — SODO Community Market (standing for Seattle’s…
Early in Jaynee Day’s career as President and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, a local grocer moved away, wiping out millions of pounds of donated food, plus a tidy income the food bank had generated by handling the grocer’s reclamation needs. Day wound up turning the…