Food Bank Breakout Session

June 2008

California Association of Food Banks– Member Organization with 43 Member Food

Banks Across California. – CAFB has five main program areas:

• Farm to Family • Public Policy• Food Stamp Outreach• Nutrition Education • Member Services and Development

About Food Banks – Food Banks warehouse and distribute food. – They do this through their networks of food

pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, rehab facilities and other community organizations.

– Food banks serve only people who are low-income – under 185% of poverty.

– Some food banks have direct service programs like mobile pantries, kids cafés or backpack programs.

Nutrition Education at Food Banks– Some food banks have had nutrition programs

since their inception.– Other’s still have no nutrition education

programming.– Some of these are partnering with county

health departments to fill the gap, others are not.

– CAFB sees Nutrition Education as a core strategy to achieving our mission.

CAFB Nutrition Education Program– One of the first Non-profit Incentive Awardees

for Nutrition Education in CA. – In FFY07-08, we had 14 NE Subcontracting

agencies, 13 were food banks.– FFY08-09, we will have 22 NE Subcontracting

agencies, 15 of them will be food banks. – This summer, we will release a case study of

our Nutrition Education Partners.

Nutrition Education & Farm to Family– Food banks are combining their Nutrition

Education Programs with Farm to Family Distributions.

– Introduce CA fresh fruits and vegetables to low-income Californians.

– CAFB hopes to jointly release a Farm to Family Nutrition Education Manual with Network this year. Programming will follow.

– This year, CAFB implementing regular calls and meetings with subcontractors.

Steering Committee – There is currently an effort underway to

improve and enhance food bank’s nutrition education programming and policies around nutritious eating.

– This work is being funded by MAZON. A survey they did with their grantees about nutrition education and healthy food policy attached.

Healthy Food Policies – California Food Banks are among the first to

implement healthy food policies. – Role of donations in food banking makes

policies difficult to implement. – Food Banks face same challenges that other

institutions face in setting healthy food policies: costs, how to define, implementation.

New Programming = New Tools– Food Banks have been finding new routes to

distribution that make healthy food programming easier.

– Bin distributions at after school or pantry sites make produce distribution easier.

– Kid’s Cafés offer great locations for NE.– Mobile pantries create farmer’s market

environment where NE can be provided.

Working with Food Banks on NE– Meet with Food Banks before setting your

goals and defining your SOW. – Be sure that your contribution is an added

benefit and values existing efforts. – Work with food banks to bring healthier food

and funding for programming. – Allow the food bank opportunities to build

their own internal NE and healthy food programs.

THANK YOU!