Food banks, which have already risen to the challenge of assisting furloughed federal workers, now face a potentially much bigger shutdown-induced problem: extra demand for food from people facing longer-than-usual gaps between their monthly SNAP payments. When the government resolved a potential disruption in SNAP by issuing February benefits early,…
Food Bank News
Propel, a Brooklyn, NY, startup that offers an app to manage SNAP, scrambled as soon as it heard that the government would be handing out February SNAP benefits early due to the shutdown. Early issuance of SNAP would create a long gap between payments, it realized, and it hoped to…
The charitable food system — with its close connection to vulnerable populations — seems like the perfect environment to pursue strategies aimed at controlling diabetes. But finding those solutions is proving as complex as the disease itself. Feeding America helped shed light on possible solutions when it completed a rigorous…
When Anna Trautwein looks back on a program aimed at improving the health of diabetic food-pantry clients in Essex County, N.J., she sees some stand-out success stories: the handful of people who lost a significant amount of weight; the few who were able to wean themselves off some prescription drugs;…
It took a small army of volunteers and years of outreach, but the Ohio Association of Foodbanks has reached a remarkable milestone in its ongoing effort to connect people to government benefits and tax credits they are due. After more than 12 years, the association can point to nearly $2…
As the government shutdown grinds on, strategies for serving furloughed employees are top of mind for the nation’s food banks, even as uncertainty mounts over the future of SNAP payments. Many food banks are treating the slowly unfolding crisis of the shutdown much as they would a natural disaster —…
The USDA saved the day when it announced on January 8, that SNAP benefits would be available through February, despite the government shutdown. But the technique it is using to make benefits available in February will not be possible in March, raising the specter of severe hardship for millions of…
There is a new category of food distribution in the works, and the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank is helping to define it. Rooted in the concept of food as medicine, SFMFB is working with the San Francisco Department of Public Health to develop a network of “food pharmacies,” which look…
It’s fair to say that food banks have a bit of a love-hate relationship with food drives. While they are great for engaging the community and bringing in much-needed food, they are less cost-efficient than cash and can generate heaps of work on the back end in terms of checking…