BackPack Program
There are children in America that rely on resources such as free or reduced-priced school lunch, during the school year.
The BackPack Program is designed to meet the needs of hungry children at times when other resources are not available, such as weekends and school vacations.
About the BackPack Program:
Backpacks filled with food that children take home on weekends
Food is child-friendly, nonperishable, easily consumed and vitamin fortified
Backpacks are discreetly distributed to children on the last day before the weekend or holiday vacation
The BackPack Concept
The BackPack Program concept was developed at the Arkansas Rice Depot in Little Rock, after a school nurse asked for help because hungry students were coming to her with stomachaches and dizziness. The local food bank began to provide the school children with groceries in non-descript backpacks to carry home.
More About this Program
In addition to providing nutritious food to school children in need, some BackPack Programs provide extra food for younger siblings at home and others operate during the summer months when children are out of school and have limited access to free or reduced-priced meals.
The BackPack Program became a pilot program in 1995. The National Council of Feeding America approved the BackPack Program as an official national program of the Network in July 2006.
There are more than 120 Feeding America members operating more than 1,600 BackPack Programs in 41 states and Washington, D.C, serving more than 70,000 children each year.
All of our national programs and services are provided through the Feeding America network. You can locate the food bank that serves your local community with our locator.
For more information about the BackPack Program, please contact June Tanoue at 312.641.6830.
Community Kitchen
The Community Kitchen® program provides culinary job training to low-income men and women to prepare them for careers in the food service industry. During their training, students also develop valuable life and professional skills including goal establishment, résumé writing, interviewing skills, conflict management and budgeting to help them gain and sustain employment after graduation.
As the students work to achieve their own self-sufficiency, they also serve their communities, producing hundreds of nutritious meals for a variety of social service agency feeding programs such as Kids Cafes®, youth and senior centers, shelters and community dining rooms.
The Community Kitchen program is an innovative, exciting, and cost-efficient way to feed people struggling with hunger, train the unemployed, generate public support and create greater economies of scale.
Fast Facts
There are currently 21 Community Kitchen programs in operation.
Nationwide, the program graduates more than 600 students each year and helps them find employment in the foodservice industry.
The Community Kitchen program boasts a 58 percent job retention rate over six months for program graduates.
In 2006, students served 4.7 million meals.
1,150 students enrolled in Community Kitchen programs in 2006.
For more information about Community Kitchen programs, please contact Mitzi Baum at 312.641.6842.
Support this and other programs by making a donation or to learn more about making a gift, please contact Katie Williams at 312.641.6642 .
Disaster Relief
Our network supports relief and recovery in communities by distributing assistance through the more than 63,000 local agencies that we support. Feeding America also provides immediate relief through emergency feeding centers operated by NVOAD partners, including the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army.
Feeding America first took an active role in disaster relief in 1989, following Hurricane Hugo, which devastated several states in the Southeastern U.S., and the Loma Prieta earthquake, which caused significant damage in San Francisco and the Central California Coast. Since then, the Feeding America network of more than 200 food banks has been committed to responding to major disasters, and dedicated help areas hit by disasters to recover.
Feeding American is a member of the National Voluntary Relief Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD).
Fast Facts
During the past five years, the Feeding America network and our national corporate donors have provided more than 100 million pounds of emergency food and disaster relief supplies to individuals and families affected by disaster.
Feeding America regularly mobilizes our corporate partners and donor community to help provide disaster relief, above and beyond ongoing collaborations to address the chronic food insecurity that many Americans face daily.
We provide specialized training for our network members and continually improve operating procedures that enable member food banks to develop seamless, coordinated approaches to delivering disaster assistance.
Before disasters strike, the Feeding America network positions emergency food and personal care items that are most frequently requested by individuals and families after an incident. These supplies are available in strategically designated locations throughout the nation and inventory is regularly cycled to ensure that food and supplies there are fresh and safe.
For more information, please contact Patrick Crawford, Director of Disaster Services at 312.614.6846.
Support this and other programs by making a donation or to learn more about making a gift, please contact Katie Williams at 312.641.6642 .
Kids Cafe
Kids Cafe programs provide free meals and snacks to low-income children through a variety of community locations where children already congregate—such as Boys and Girls Clubs, churches or public schools. In addition to providing meals to kids, some Kids Cafe programs also offer a safe place, where under the supervision of trustworthy staff, a child can get involved in educational, recreational and social activities.
The program traces its origins to Savannah, Georgia in 1989, when two young brothers were discovered late one night in the kitchen of their housing project''s community center. In response to this glaring example of child hunger, the Second Harvest Food Bank of Coastal Georgia started the first Kids Cafe. In 1993, Feeding America launched the national Kids Cafe program.
Fast Facts
• There are over 1,700 established Kids Cafes in operation.
• Over 12 million children live in food insecure households.
All of our national programs and services are provided through the Feeding America network. You can locate the food bank that serves your local community with our locator.
For more information about Kids Cafe, please contact June Tanoue at 312.641.6830.
Support this and other programs by making a donation or to learn more about making a gift, please contact Katie Williams at 312.641.6642 .
National Produce Program
Feeding America established the National Produce Program to increase the network''s capacity to handle fresh foods. This program, previously known as the Fresh Foods Initiative, has grown substantially over the past few years and has become the number one category of food that we distribute.
This program offers a comprehensive array of services built around securing and distributing fresh produce throughout the Feeding America network of more than 200 food banks. If you have a need for fresh produce, please use the function on this website to locate a food bank member closest to you.
How the Program Works
Partnerships with growers, packers, and industry experts help Feeding America identify and secure bulk nutritious sources of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Value Added Processing enables food banks to accept and distribute these bulk foods in manageable, portion-size packaging most commonly found in supermarkets and other retailers. It also allows us to capture fresh produce in at an earlier time in the supply chain, meaning that we get fresh product.
This program also allows for our network to offer fresh produce on a consistent basis, which assists the many agencies our network serves.
Rapid Food Distribution grants and refrigerated transportation subsidies lower costs of transporting perishable foods making the purchase of fresh produce affordable for our members.
Store pick-up programs facilitate the donation of fresh foods from retailers.
Donations are presented to our national office from many sources across the U.S. These donation loads are shipped to members using a transportation subsidy provided by many corporate partners.
Because of the National Produce Program, more nutritious foods are being distributed to people through our network than ever before.
Fast Facts
The Feeding America network delivers an average of 2.2 million pounds of fresh produce each week, comprised of donations and Value Added Processing items.
In 2005, 311 million pounds of fresh produce was distributed through the network.
For more information about the National Produce Program, please email Rick Bella, Director of Food Purchasing or call 312.641.6507.
Support this and other programs by making a donation or to learn more about making a gift, please contact Katie Williams at 312.641.6642 .
Relief FleetThe Feeding America network invests millions of dollars into interstate transportation each year. The cost of transportation often prohibits food banks from being able to accept a food donation.
Relief Fleet works to lower transportation costs by soliciting free or deeply-discounted freight for donated loads for all network members. Through Relief Fleet, transportation companies contact the Feeding America national office and offer empty trailer space that could be used to transport donations. Donation pick-up and delivery are then matched with travel routes and proximity to a local network food bank that can accommodate the donation.
Fast Facts
• In 2005, 11.5 million pounds (846 total shipments) of donated food were distributed free-of-charge to 186 food banks through Relief Fleet.
• Just one truckload of donated food can provide up to 27,000 meals for Americans struggling with hunger.
• For every dollar saved on transportation, Feeding America can provide five meals to a family of four.
• Last year, the network saved $460,000 in transportation costs, enabling those funds to be put back into programs that feed those in need.
For more information about Relief Fleet, please contact Peg Collins-Sarinyamas at 312.263.6516.
Seafood Initiative
The Seafood Initiative is a long-term partnership between the seafood industry and Feeding America. Developed by SeaShare, Inc., this initiative generates new volumes of high-protein seafood for low-income families in communities across the country.
Donations of protein-rich foods are relatively scarce and most in demand by Feeding America network members. The Seafood Initiative brings a high quality, highly nutritious source of protein that is vital to the health of those served by our network.
Feeding America''s goal is to distribute manufactured, packaged goods that are in a ready-to-use form. The Seafood Initiative subsidizes the cost of processing fish into manageable portions and useable forms, minimizes the transportation costs of moving this product to food banks, and reduces warehousing costs for storing quantities of fish.
SeaShare (www.seashare.org) is our partner and link to the seafood industry. SeaShare''s relationship with the seafood industry provides an avenue for Feeding America to communicate its needs for these valuable protein products.
In 1993, SeaShare led the effort to amend fishery management regulations in Alaska – the largest fishery in the country – to allow the retention of bycatch for distribution through hunger-relief agencies. The success of these efforts won national recognition and was lauded on network television as well as the New York Times, People Magazine, and Oprah. With broad seafood support and input, SeaShare began developing additional seafood donation programs, tailored to the capabilities of various individual seafood companies and industry groups. Today, we provide a variety of seafood to Americans in need, including, but not limited to catfish, canned salmon, fish sticks, frozen salmon steaks and halibut.
Our “Day of Fish” education initiative has helped both hunger-relief agencies and households to become more comfortable with handling and preparing seafood. This is accomplished through interactive training workshops with Feeding America network members and their affiliate agencies. The workshops provide information to attendees about the nutritional value of the fish, recipes, meal planning, and food safety and handling methods. This program is subsidized by Feeding America and is provided at no cost to network members.
For more information about the Seafood Initiative, please contact Shelly Elfstrom at 312.641.6531.
Fast Facts
• In 2006, the Seafood Initiative provided more than 13 million servings of high quality protein to needy Americans.
• Despite donated or low cost freight, it cost the Feeding America Network over $150,000 to transport fish throughout the U.S.
• We have provided over 40 educational events through the “Day of Fish” program to hunger-relief agencies served by network member food banks.
• One of the Seafood Industries successful causes has been through their hunger relief efforts.
Support this and other programs by making a donation or to learn more about making a gift, please contact Katie Williams at 312.641.6642 .