Linda Nageotte may have been named President and Chief Operating Officer of Feeding America last July, but in practice she is more like Convener in Chief. One of her mandates is to develop a strategic framework for the Feeding America network of 200 food banks and additional affiliated food banks,…
Food Bank News
By all accounts, a program that the USDA introduced in late 2021 to help local farmers grow nutritious food for underserved communities has worked out exceedingly well (Food Bank News first wrote about it here.) The Local Food Purchase Assistance program has resulted in nearly $700 million of funds going…
In just a couple of months, eligible families in 36 states will be able to use federal benefits loaded onto cards to purchase food for their kids during the summer. The program, known as Summer EBT (for electronic benefits transfer), is based on a similar program that emerged during the…
Food banks exist to provide food for free to people who need it. Alameda County Community Food Bank is proving that food banks can also get paid for providing that food. In February, the Calif.-based food bank received its first payment for providing healthy food to a patient on behalf…
Standards are hardly exciting. But if an organization wants to expand its reach and influence, they’re a necessity. The Food is Medicine Coalition is hoping that the standard it just released around medically tailored meals will get more organizations to adopt high-quality, nutritious meals as a way to treat chronic…
As the former executive chef of a country club in Oklahoma, Jeff Marlow every once in a while would have to order a semi-truckload of ice for every day of a major golf tournament. Because there was no facility in the state large enough to handle such orders, the ice…
Oregon Food Bank’s plans for a new community food center are putting it in the vanguard of hunger relief organizations that are reimagining how food banking can work. Its Ontario Community Food Center, expected to open in late 2026, will be strategically located between a federally qualified healthcare center and…
Manna Food Center’s paper-based system for helping people purchase food at local markets is not very sophisticated, but gets points for innovation. Since the pandemic, Silver Spring, Md.-based Manna has been distributing paper vouchers to hundreds of people monthly, who can use them to purchase culturally relevant food at small…
Food banks are starting to throw around their purchasing power. Because of pressure from food banks, some food manufacturers are starting to remove added salt, sugar and fats from their canned and other goods. A side benefit is that more nutritious food is also ending up on the shelves of…