FISH Food Bank, Food Pantry, Open Table Meal Service’s Post

Today we released a report on how the federal government measures food hardship and two programs that direct U.S. farm produce to foodbanks and food pantries. During the course of this review, my team and I visited a dozen foodbanks and food pantries in New Mexico, Montana, and the area in and around Washington, DC. We learned so much from the women and men working day in and day out to feed their hungry neighbors. They shared their spaces and experience with us, along with numerous experts, state officials, and others we interviewed for this report. We put together five recommendations for how USDA can better support local charitable food organizations and do more to manage performance in the programs meant to assist them. #foodinsecurity #foodbanks #foodpantries US Government Accountability Office USDA

Today we released a report on how the federal government measures food hardship and two programs that direct U.S. farm produce to foodbanks and food pantries. During the course of this review, my team and I visited a dozen foodbanks and food pantries in New Mexico, Montana, and the area in and around Washington, DC. We learned so much from the women and men working day in and day out to feed their hungry neighbors. They shared their spaces and experience with us, along with numerous experts, state officials, and others we interviewed for this report. We put together five recommendations for how USDA can better support local charitable food organizations and do more to manage performance in the programs meant to assist them. #charitablefood #foodbanks #foodpantries #foodassistance #gao #usda #tefap #csfp #foodinsecurity

🪴 FRESHFARM believes that everyone deserves access to healthy, locally grown produce. This is why we offer the Market Share, our weekly produce box, at steeply discounted rates for individuals experiencing food insecurity in the Washington, DC metro area. Your donation this spring can directly support neighbors using SNAP benefits by helping them access weekly fresh food at a low cost. 🪴 Last year, the generosity of our community ensured that 346 low-income shoppers received healthy, farm-fresh food every single week. Your gift will make a real difference for local families. One neighbor, Marina, explains, “The share has been a huge help, to just have more food, and to be able to buy less from the grocery store. My two children eat way more fruits and vegetables; they generally eat way healthier.” 🪴 Every Market Share purchased through donations also directly supports small- and mid-sized farmers in the FRESHFARM network, many of whom are traditionally under-represented in farming. With a gift today, you can support local farmers and help your neighbors bring home local produce. 🪴 Your gift of $80 provides a month of groceries for a family of four; or a gift of $20 can support the family for a week. We can lower food insecurity in our region, one family at a time, but we can only do it with the help of caring neighbors like you! Donate to put affordable food in reach for your neighbors!: https://bit.ly/3QDLpdZ #FRESHFARM #SpringAppeal . . . #dcfarmersmarkets #foodaccess #foodsecurity #SNAPmatters #SNAPEBT #SNAPacceptedHere #mdfarmersmarkets #vafarmersmarkets #foodismedicine

According to the United Nations, one-third of the world’s food is wasted. In the US, food waste is 40%—enough to feed 2 billion people. Yet, a recent food mapping study concluded that 1 in 8 Pennsylvanians in our own communities struggle to secure nutritious food. To address local food waste and insecurity, Eat Share has been exploring innovative ways to redistribute food to members of our communities. From this endeavor, we have developed Food Forward Donations. Our Food Forward initiative welcomes local restaurants, caterers, farmers, grocery stores and others to donate their excess food, rather than waste it. So far in 2024, Food Forward donations have provided meals to 29 appreciative families. Donations have included leftover prepared foods from events—like sandwiches, chicken, collard greens, pulled pork, mac and cheese, baked beans, and cookies—as well as frozen hams, pot roasts, and fresh garden veggies. Contact us anytime and Eat Share volunteers will collect your donations, package them into meals, and deliver locally. Learn more at eatshare.org/foodforward #eatshare #northcentralpa #neighborshelpingneighbors #foodforwardncpa

With Easter weekend coming up, RLC sends well wishes to all those who celebrate! 🐣 🍫 🍬 For many, Easter calls to mind baskets of candy, colorfully dyed eggs, and meals shared with loved ones. Last year, the category that U.S. consumers planned to spend the most on for the Easter holiday was food, at $7.3 billion nationwide. It was followed by clothing at $4 billion, gifts at $3.8 billion, and candy at $3.3 billion. This year, RLC challenges you to make sure fewer of your Easter purchases end up in landfills - especially food items. Here’s how: If you’re a business, one of the best things you can do is to donate leftover Easter products to a food rescue organization (like RLC), which will redistribute them to those in need. It’s such an easy way to brighten someone else’s holiday! The Food Donation Improvement Act releases you from liability when donating. Read more about protective legislation for food donors here: https://buff.ly/3PDZojl For individual households, consider repurposing or freezing Easter leftovers rather than discarding them. One of my favorite childhood breakfasts was scrambled eggs with leftover Easter ham and cheese. I looked forward to my dad making it every year. It’s a sustainable tradition that I can’t wait to pass down to my own family. This holiday weekend, feed people, not landfills. Anyone can reduce wasted food by being mindful and creative! #wastedfood #sustainability #foodinsecurity #foodrescue #donate #endhunger #excessfood *This post was created by a University of Rhode Island student named Hannah, who is generously volunteering her writing services to Rescuing Leftover Cuisine. Thank you so much for your support Hannah!

My heart has been heavy this weekend watching a place I called home for five years be washed away. It's been heartening to see the community and people from neighboring towns come together to offer support but I can't imagine what it's going to take to rebuild. So many friends have lost homes, businesses, and studios. So many people are without safe drinking water, electricity, and more, and many will be without income sources for quite some time. Like with most disasters, lots of "aid" organizations will show up out of nowhere asking for money to help the community but many of these funnel the majority of donations into operating and advertising while reserving very little for the actual communities and people affected. If you, like me, are trying to make the most impact possible from a distance, here are some trustworthy places you can donate and, for people living in Asheville, some places you can go for aid. If you know of any other directly impactful organizations or resources, please share them in the comments: DONATIONS (aid + add'l resources below) -------- - BeLoved Asheville Venmo: BeLoved-Asheville CashApp: $BeLovedAsheville Zelle: 828-412-2054 - MANNA FoodBank https://lnkd.in/g5-VWVHb - American Red Cross Text HELENE to 90999 to make a donation - Homeward Bound https://lnkd.in/g4ZfTYdf AID/GAS/WATER/FOOD -------- - WATER Lowe’s: 95 Smokey Park Highway, Asheville, NC Home Depot: 795 Fairview Rd, Asheville, NC 127 Acton Cir, Asheville, NC Pisgah Brewing Company: 2849 US 70 (Water available from 2 to 5 p.m., BYO sanitary container) Publix: 165 Weaver Boulevard - Manna Food Bank: Call 1-800-820-1109 for Food Assistance - GROCERIES Food Lion: 179 Paragon Pkwy, Clyde, NC Trader Joe’s: 120 Merrimon Ave, Asheville, NC 28801 Ingles Markets (Cash Only): 575 New Leicester Hwy, Asheville, NC Walmart: 1636 Hendersonville Rd, Asheville, NC Publix: 165 Weaver Boulevard - GAS Arden Quality Plus: 2273 Hendersonville Rd, Arden, NC Sheetz: 5440 Asheville Hwy, Hendersonville, NC - WIFI LOCATIONS Buncombe County Health Department: 40 Cox Ave, Weaverville, NC Citizen Vinyl: 14 O’Henry Ave, Asheville, NC DoubleTree Hilton Downtown: 199 Haywood St., Asheville Asheville Shelter, Ferguson Building: 340 Victoria Road, Asheville IMPORTANT NUMBERS -------- Duke Energy: 1-800-419-6356 (to report outages call 1-800-543-5599 or text "OUT" to 57801) NC Highway Patrol: 828-298-4252 / Road Conditions: DriveNC.gov Emergency Call Center: 828-356-2020 Buncombe County Non-emergency: 828-250-6650 Canton Police: 828-648-2376 Waynesville Police: 828-456-5363 Maggie Valley Police: 828-926-0867 HEMC: 828-452-2281 Haywood County Animal Control: 828-456-5338 Haywood County Department of Social Services: 828-452-6620 Haywood County Missing Persons: 828-452-6666 Canton Water: 828-648-2376 Waynesville Water: 828-456-3706 #withasheville #ashevillenorthcarolina

For many Indigenous families living on reserves, accessing fresh groceries means driving an average of 45 minutes to the nearest store, only to face limited options when they get there. This creates a barrier to accessing healthy, nutritious food. Fresh Routes is working to close this gap. With our Mobile Grocery Stores, we bring food right to the reserves, offering fresh, affordable food where it’s needed most. But to keep serving these communities and expand our reach, we urgently need a walk-in cooler. The cooler will allow us to store and transport more food safely and ensure that families on reserves don’t have to worry about the next time they can access fresh produce. With your help, we can keep this vital service going and break down barriers to food access. Please donate today to help us reach our $15,000 goal. Together, we can make a lasting impact!  https://bit.ly/4e7PNeP #SupportIndigenousCommunities #BreakDownBarriers #FoodAccessForAll #FundraisingForImpact #DonateNow #FreshRoutes

“My name is Denys. I'm food services manager at Main Street Project. I'm on the 4th year working here now. We are working on the partnerships with different donors and getting food to people who need it the most. It’s challenging to find right the fit for people who are unable to cook on their own. We do have some access to raw foods, but many of our participants don't have ability to cook that food. Another challenge is we have a very tiny kitchen that supports the operation of feeding on average 500 plus people a day. The biggest challenge, I would say, is to get folks the right nutrients of food. Food insecurity is huge and has become even more of a problem here in Winnipeg. There is an uptick in using the food banks. This tells me that food insecurity has grown a lot. We see much younger people coming over to the food bank. We see families with little kids that are coming to food bank as well. Right now, we are facing a higher inflation, food cost is way, way higher than what we experienced before and our food donations is way lower than we have ever seen it. I've done calculations for our shelter. When we feed people three times a day, came down to $0.71 per person per day for three times. Quite often, people will think oh, I have to give at least $10 or $20 to make a difference. No, it's not the case. Even $1.00 will help somebody have a meal today.” Your purchase of 50/50 tickets supports Main Street Project’s food programming, which provides over 1,000 meals each day to the community. Ticket sales close end of the day on January 31! Draw takes place February 1. Buy your tickets today: https://ow.ly/Txkm50QsINy #MSPBuildingStability #Winnipeg #Manitoba

Everyone needs nutritious food to thrive, and in every community in America, people are working hard to provide for themselves and their families. Yet in 2022, 44 million people—1 in 7 people—faced food insecurity in the U.S. Those are the highest numbers in a decade, underscoring the need for more charitable food assistance in the bi-state region and beyond. This month the St. Louis Area Foodbank is grateful to participate in the Walmart Fight Hunger, Spark Change campaign with Feeding America. Now, for the 11th straight year, all U.S. Walmart stores and Sam’s Clubs are launching the Fight Hunger. Spark Change. campaign, with the goal of providing people facing hunger with access to the food and resources they say they need to thrive. The campaign will run in stores and online from April 1-April 29, with three ways for shoppers to participate: -By donating at check-out in stores or clubs or round up at Walmart.com and the Walmart app. -By purchasing participating products in-store or online at Walmart.com or SamsClub.com. For every purchase of a participating product, the supplier will donate the monetary equivalent of at least one meal ($0.10) on behalf of a Feeding America partner food bank at Walmart and five meals ($0.50) at Sam’s Club, up to applicable limits. See specially marked packages for full details. -By donating at Feeding America’s Fight Hunger. Spark Change. campaign donation site at either https://lnkd.in/gzaDtKg2 or https://lnkd.in/gsptpHev

Record Numbers at NYC Food Pantries: A Growing Crisis 🍎 New York City food pantries are experiencing unprecedented demand--up 80% from pre-pandemic levels--with many community members facing food insecurity at alarming rates. As the cost of living rises, more families are turning to pantries for essential support. This surge reflects the ongoing challenges our city is facing. At Gotham Food Pantry, we’re witnessing firsthand how critical our role is in addressing this need. It’s not just about providing food—it’s about offering dignity, hope, and a lifeline to those in need. September is Hunger Action Month. Here are five action items individuals can take during Hunger Action Month: 1. Volunteer at a local food pantry – Dedicate your time to help distribute food, organize donations, or support events aimed at fighting hunger in your community. 2. Donate non-perishable items – Collect and donate shelf-stable foods like canned goods, pasta, and rice to local food pantries or food drives. 3. Host a fundraising event – Organize a virtual or in-person fundraiser, such as a bake sale or walkathon, to raise money for your favorite hunger relief organizations. 4. Advocate for food security policies – Contact local representatives to support policies that address food insecurity, such as increased funding for food programs or access to affordable, healthy food. 5. Spread awareness on social media – Share facts, resources, and stories about hunger and food insecurity using the hashtag #HungerActionMonth to raise awareness and inspire others to get involved. #FoodInsecurity #NYCCommunity #FightHunger #GothamFoodPantry