Food for Others, Inc.

Food for Others operates four core services.  First, emergency food is provided to individuals and families referred by social services organizations to the Food for Others' warehouse in Merrifield, Virginia.  These clients are provided with several days' worth of food thus buying time for other sources of assistance to be arranged or for the crisis to pass.  New in July of 2016, the emergency clients are able to “shop” in our choice area of the warehouse accompanied by a volunteer.  This client choice option gives clients more dignity in choosing their own food and cuts down on food waste.  Additionally, clients meeting the income eligibility guidelines may return monthly for U.S. Department of Agriculture commodities (The Emergency Food Assistance Program) at the warehouse.  The warehouse is open for these programs Monday through Friday, 9:30am until 5:00pm.

The second service is Neighborhood Site distributions that occur weeknights at 15 sites in low-income neighborhoods across Fairfax County (10 sites), Falls Church (2 sites), and Arlington County (3 sites).  Volunteers pick up food at the warehouse and then distribute it at these designated locations.  Northern Virginians in need of free food line up and are served after answering the only question asked: "How many people are in your family?"  These various sites are currently serviced a total of 25 times each week at 6pm or 6:30pm.  Food for Others also serves 1 Neighborhood Site one time per month during the day in Annandale.

The third service is our distribution to Community Partners.  These are approximately 18 local Northern Virginia community-based organizations that come to Food for Others to receive food on a weekly or monthly basis.  In providing this service, Food for Others functions as a food bank.  These groups pick up food at the warehouse, and in turn, offer it to the elderly, home-bound, homeless, school children, and other client populations at risk of hunger. 

Lastly, Food for Others provides weekend food to children through our Power Pack Program (P3). Many children in our area have little or close to nothing to eat between their lunch at school on Friday and the breakfast that is served Monday morning. Distributed on Friday afternoons, P3 provides elementary school-aged children with a pack of food to alleviate the child’s hunger over the weekend and allow them to focus more on their school work.  For the 2020-2021  school year, we served 2,478 children each week at 30 schools in Fairfax County.

These four food distributions would not be possible without a variety of food sources.  Volunteers and staff pick up most of the Food for Others stock from donor organizations.  Contributed food is then augmented as needed through acquisitions from food banks, food wholesalers, food drives, and produce gleaning activities.  Ten full-time employees and one part-time employee handle these operations with the help of over 1,000 volunteers.

During the 2021 fiscal year,  Food for Others distributed 3,471,148 pounds of food (2,892,623 meals); counted 2,902 average individuals served at each neighborhood site; distributed food to an average of  28,901 per Community Partner at each distribution; and served 2,478 kids through the Power Packs Program.

Our clients are families, single people, the elderly, the young, the sick, the homeless, the employed, and unemployed; they are Caucasian, Asian, African American and Hispanic. The one thing they have in common is their need for help and we provide that in the form of free food that enables them to utilize their resources for the other great needs in their lives. 

Feeding America

WHO WE ARE:  Feeding America is a nationwide network of 199 member food banks that leads the fight against hunger in the U.S. In 2020, 60 million people were served by the charitable food system. As a result of COVID-19, Feeding America provided 6.6 billion meals to people facing hunger, an increase of 2 billion meals over 2019, serving individuals, children, families, seniors in rural, suburban and urban areas across the U.S. Currently, the USDA reports that 38 million people, which is 1 in 9, face hunger, including 11 million children. We work through 60,000 food pantries and meal programs and engage more than 2 million volunteers monthly in communities across the U.S. Feeding America also supports programs that improve food security among the people we serve; educates the public about the issue of hunger; and advocates for legislation that protects people so they do not have to struggle with hunger. 

HOW WE WORK:  The process of getting food to Americans in need requires a dynamic infrastructure and sophisticated management. Feeding America cultivates partnerships to secure donations from national food and grocery manufacturers, retailers, foodservice locations, shippers, packers and growers and from government agencies, and other organizations. 

Then, coordinates transportation of donations to member food banks, which ensure the safe storage and reliable distribution of food to local food pantries and meal programs, which in turn, provide the food and grocery items directly to people in need in local communities across the U.S.
 
INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES:  Feeding America develops innovative strategies that help us capture and distribute more food with the greatest efficiency. We are focused on ensuring that the people we serve have access to enough nutritious food for themselves and their families.

To do this, the network is sourcing and distributing more “Foods to Encourage”—foods that promote good health and align with the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines, such as fruits, vegetables, dairy, whole grains and protein. Today, 71% of food received by the network is classified as Foods to Encourage. 

Additionally, we are setting goals to source a specific amount of protein, dairy and fruits and vegetables each year, with anticipated growth over time.

Feeding America also has made large investments to secure more fresh fruits and vegetables to help support the health and wellness among the people we serve. Partnerships with growers, packers, and industry experts help Feeding America identify and secure billions of pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables each year for people facing hunger. Further, Feeding America has established regional produce cooperatives, which are central processing facilities run by food banks, which can take in large amounts of produce and distribute it in more manageable quantities to local food banks. We are also deepening our relationships within the agricultural sector and streamlining the donation process to make it easier for growers to donate fruits and vegetables from multiple locations. 

FOOD RESCUE:  Feeding America is the leading food-rescue partner across the food industry, increasing the number of meals available to families while helping to reduce food waste. Thanks to our national and local partnerships with retailers, manufacturers, foodservice operators, farmers and others, the Feeding America network has been able to divert 4.7 billion pounds of good food from being thrown away and provide it to families in need. 

Feeding America also is pursuing a transformative new opportunity to rescue food from foodservice partners and has implemented a program to rescue food from foodservice partners by building national relationships with foodservice donors and creating tools so the network can leverage this largely untapped meal source. Feeding America's MealConnect™ is a technology platform that makes it easier than ever to connect donors with surplus food, like restaurants and food service organizations, to their local Feeding America member food banks and their partners. This donor portal is the only tool of its kind available on a national scale that can ensure high food safety standards. MealConnect™ allows for easier pickups, easier tracking and easier receipt recording for any type of donation. Plus, donors feel great knowing they’re reducing food waste while providing hunger relief right in their local community.

DISASTER and COVID-19 RELIEF:  Persistent hunger can be thought of as a day-to-day disaster, because hunger occurs every day in our country with devastating results. Natural disasters and other large-scale community crises, like the COVID-19 pandemic, further exacerbate food insecurity. For the people who may have been living in vulnerable conditions prior to a disaster, the loss of a home, car or job can change their lives quickly and leave them unable to meet their basic needs. High unemployment due to the pandemic resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of individuals and families who need emergency food assistance—40% for the first time during the COVID-19 national crisis. 

Feeding America’s Disaster Relief Program provides food and emergency supplies that people rely on to cope with the impact of disasters—from the COVID-19 national crisis to the disasters within the pandemic - hurricanes, wild fires and the floods that capture national attention to the local disasters that may not make the headlines but have a devastating impact on individual communities. Every step of the way, Feeding America is there for disaster victims, offering food and hope throughout the recovery process.  

In the face of these challenges, Feeding America brings a network of warehouses, trucks and logistical solutions to deliver food, water and supplies to people facing hunger. With decades of experience in disaster response, we have a distinguished track record of deploying vital resources where they are most needed quickly and efficiently in the immediate aftermath of disasters and throughout long recovery periods. 

ENDING HUNGER STRATEGY:  In addition to providing meals to millions of families today, Feeding America is on a strategic path toward ending hunger. Only when all children have enough nutritious food to grow and learn and their families have enough food to stay healthy will we ensure a stronger future for America. Together, we can help more families achieve food security so that all have a chance to fulfill their potential and build a bright future for themselves and their communities.

Connecticut Food Bank

A projected 400,000 people across Connecticut Food Bank’s six county service area  - including nearly 100,000 children - struggle with hunger each month (Map the Meal Gap, Feeding America, 2020). According to Feeding America’s 2020 Map the Meal Gap study, working families are especially at-risk- 42% of people in our service area who are food insecure are ineligible for federal food assistance, yet cannot make ends meet. Connecticut Food Bank and its network of member feeding programs serve populations that are at risk of hunger and, according to the USDA, are food insecure.  The USDA uses the phrase food insecurity to describe a lack of consistent access to adequate amounts of food for an active, healthy life.  Food insecure populations include people unable to provide basic needs for their households because of economic and transportation barriers. The food we distribute serves low-income households whose income is not sufficient to feed their families, seniors on fixed incomes, individuals who struggle to obtain the nutrition they need and to provide more consistency in meals, every day.

According to the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), one of the nation’s leading anti-hunger advocacy organizations, low-income populations are especially susceptible to an array of negative health consequences due to poor nutrition and food insecurity. Factors such as limited resources, lack of access to fresh and healthy foods, high levels of stress, limited access to healthcare and cycles of food deprivation and overeating all contribute to the development of chronic health problems and obesity in both children and adults. Connecticut Food Bank enables low-income individuals and families to have access to the healthy and nutritious food they need in order to thrive at home, school and in life. 

The mission of Connecticut Food Bank is to provide nutritious food to people in need. We do this by supplying food products and resources to our member agencies, as well as through direct food distribution programs and by promoting public awareness about the problem of hunger.  Connecticut Food Bank is the state's largest centralized provider of emergency hunger relief, distributing over 28 million pounds of food annually to benefit over 400,000 residents at risk of hunger in six of the state's eight counties: Fairfield, Litchfield, Middlesex, New Haven, New London and Windham. Connecticut Food Bank acquires, transports, warehouses and distributes nutritious food to people in need through a network of several hundred community-based partner programs that include food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, residential, and day programs for low-income adults and children. Our partner agencies account for about 90% of our distribution of food. Direct outreach programs, including the Mobile Pantry, the Senior Box Program and the Dairy Express help provide underserved populations with healthy food each day.

Connecticut Food Bank distributes food through our centralized distribution center in Wallingford and a regional warehouse located in Bridgeport. Connecticut Food Bank transports food with a fleet of 15 vehicles, including three customized refrigerated mobile distribution trucks that bring food and services directly to residents of low-income neighborhoods. Connecticut Food Bank employs 60 staff members and has a pool of more than 6,000 volunteers.