Co-Author: Eric Meredith, Intercultural Competency Consultant, Feeding America This National Nutrition Month, Feeding America is pleased to feature the innovative work of Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana and Atlanta Community Food Bank as they seek to increase access to nutritious foods for their communities. In the Indianapolis metropolitan area, there is a 16.8-year life expectancy gap between Fishers, an affluent suburb of Indianapolis, and the downtown areas. To address this health disparity, Gleaners Food Bank created a Food is Medicine program to help people who lack access to nutritious f ..read more

Author: Eric Meredith, Intercultural Competency Consultant, Feeding America In 2020, 24% of Black individuals experienced food insecurity, which was more than three times the rate of white households. The Black community consistently faces high rates of hunger due to social, economic, and environmental challenges. To address the high rates of food insecurity amongst Black people, many people in the Black community are returning to their agricultural roots to ensure their neighbors have access to nutrient-rich foods. This post discusses the historical challenges of Bla ..read more

Since the COVID-19 pandemic officially began nearly two years ago, millions of neighbors began experiencing the need for food assistance for the first time (Feeding America, 2021). Feeding America and its network members have continued to adjust operations, support the increased need, and work toward its 2025 goal: By 2025, Feeding America, in collaboration with our network and our partners, will ensure access to enough nutritious food for people struggling with hunger and make meaningful progress toward ending hunger.   Each year, Feeding America’s Technical Adv ..read more

Co-Author: Eric Meredith, Intercultural Competency Consultant, Feeding America November is Native American Heritage month where we celebrate the many cultures, histories, and contributions of our country’s first Americans. One of the biggest contributions of Native Americans was providing 60% of all foods that are used in the world today which include beans, corn, squash, tomatoes, potatoes, chili peppers, vanilla, cacao, and many other products that were grown and cultivated by indigenous people here.  To better appreciate Native American cultures, it is important to understand the indi ..read more

Food insecurity is a critical public health threat in the United States today and can affect our neighbors, friends and family members. The prevalence of food insecurity varies across the country and can impact Americans’ health and overall well-being differently. Today, there are still far too many barriers to good health, and those barriers are disproportionately experienced by people of color, other historically marginalized groups, and those with lower incomes. Race and ethnicity, gender, geography, educational attainment and income level should not decide one’s access to health care, or ..read more

What does it mean to lead with intercultural competency when engaging with communities?​What does it mean to develop a sourcing strategy with neighbor needs at the center?​What are the opportunities to integrate HER Nutrition Guidelines across the supply chain?​How can the power of data translation and visualization be leveraged to support this work?  These four questions were the focus of a recent Feeding America conference session where we were joined by nearly 500 food bank staff to discuss how best to meet the food needs and preferenc ..read more

On behalf of Feeding America and the Institute for Hunger Research & Solutions at Connecticut Food Bank | Foodshare, I’m excited to share our recently published evidence review that explores the impact of food bank partnerships with health care organizations on food security, diet quality, and health outcomes. During my first job out of college, I managed the food pantry at an AIDS service organization in North Carolina. We specifically served neighbors living with HIV. I once asked a colleague why so many clients struggled to take their medications as prescribed, and he reminded me of th ..read more

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only increased the need for hunger relief; it has drawn more attention to the inequalities that often lead to hunger. Something similar is happening with COVID-19 vaccines, with communities of color less likely to be vaccinated than white communities. Hesitancy about vaccines is playing a role in that gap. Because food banks work directly with clients every day, they can play a strong role in keeping their clients healthy and informed. Who’s Vaccinated, Who’s Hesitating, and Why? Half the U.S. adult population is currently fully vaccinated, according to the Cente ..read more

According to the U.S. Census of Agriculture, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders make up less than 1 percent of the farming population. In comparison, more than 95 percent of full-time farm operators in the U.S. are white. During the 19th and early 20th century, Asian Americans leveraged their land ownership, farming expertise, and knowledge of growing traditional foods to participate in the agricultural economy. Laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and California Alien Land Law prohibited Asian Americans from owning land, which essentially eliminated them from agricultural produc ..read more

Feeding America is excited to release the Nutrition in Food Banking Toolkit, a resource which aims to support food banks and food pantry programs as you work to address food insecurity and the overlapping challenges posed by structural inequities often preventing the selection and consumption of nutritious foods.   The Toolkit – an evolving asset – is currently composed of three main sections, each focused on a different aspect of the charitable food system. Healthy Eating Research (HER) Nutrition Guidelines for the Charitable Food System ..read more