Grantees in action

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412 Food Rescue reports that they mobilized six local restaurants during its COVID-response work to prepare meals for home delivery and its nonprofit partners in order to feed people. Thanks to the support of a local donor that kicked off the Community Takeout program with seed donations, 412 Food Rescue is supporting the restaurants through this crisis by providing compensation for workers to create single-serve meals that are then distributed to families in need. A portion of every donation is also provided to Greater Pittsburgh Restaurant Workers Mutual Aid (PRWA) — a grassroots organization aiding unemployed restaurant workers.

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BAG reports that they have developed a new partnership with Healthy Waltham – a local non-profit whose mission is to promote collaborative approaches to improving the health and wellness of underserved and low-income populations through programs that increase access to healthy foods, provide nutrition education, and create opportunities for physical activity. Healthy Waltham has been organizing pop-up food distribution sites in Waltham. Boston Area Gleaners has been working with Healthy Waltham to provide both cold storage and trucking support. A recent food distribution served more than 700 families.

BAG leveraged its existing infrastructure to secure a contract with the USDA to purchase produce from farms (reducing farm-level waste) and distribute family-sized boxes of mixed vegetables to its distribution partners.

BAG have also been working with a new produce supplier to purchase produce for its pantries and secured a donation of fruit that would have otherwise been wasted, which helped educate the new vendor on food waste reduction options besides composting.

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Brighter Bites reports that they have been able to deepen their relationship with a producer that has donated regularly to its program for several years. Normally, they donate finished product that they have harvested and processed, before realizing they may not have a market. Through this grant, Brighter Bites has been able to help this producer out by covering the costs of harvesting produce that otherwise would be left in the field and allowing them to move the produce without adding additional costs. Because of this partnership, they established a new field pack to maximize the amount of produce in the least amount of packaging.

According to Brighter Bites, "This new element to the partnership combined with the existing donation arrangement, is a testament to the ability of a little bit of capital to unlock a lot of additional product, exponentially increasing our reach into communities experiencing food insecurity."

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The Food Bank shares the story of receiving an emergency call from a family where both parents were recently released from the hospital to recover from COVID-19 at home. They were still suffering from the virus and needed food for their family. Their son made the call to ask for assistance – he couldn’t leave the house and didn’t have any money for food. The Food Bank staff talked with him about their situation and how they could reach them. They were able to provide Crisis Response Boxes, as well as fresh produce and frozen meat from its Harrisburg Healthy Food Hub. The Food Bank also provided a gift card so that they could buy a specific food that the parents were craving – grapes. A neighbor picked up the food from the Food Bank and delivered everything to their doorstep.

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A FarmDrop customer in Little Ridge says, “I love this service! I plan to support local businesses including farmers at a higher level of commitment for the rest of my life!! I am so, so grateful that you are and were here for all of us! Thank you!”

A Portland customer says, “I’ve been really enjoying the goodies I’ve been getting from you, especially the Tide line cheeses and the pasta! And the loose leaf lettuce! And the harissa!”

“FarmDrop has been such an exciting project to be a part of and am really looking forward to working with the Portland Cultivating Community Team and expanding to this market," says Thorvald Arnell, Development & Outreach Coordinator at Springworks Farm.

“Our communities are coming together around FarmDrop to support our local farmers to continue access direct-to-consumer sales while keeping customers safe and producers' businesses alive," says Clare Desrosiers of Sunnyside Farm.

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FarmLink told us the story of Blake and her husband Andrew, who started a goat farm in upstate New York with their three children, ages six, four, and one. Their farm, although small, was doing well – they sold the majority of their milk to creameries around the Tri-State area and created a side value product of goat milk gelato, which is popular among college students and local families. However, just like many other small farmers across the nation, the COVID-19 pandemic devastated their business model.

“When coronavirus hit and restaurants closed down, there was no space in homes for delicacies like goat milk gelato and goat cheese,” Blake explained. “Those were the first things to go.” For the first six weeks of the pandemic, all of their distribution creameries shut down. Blake and her husband would dump 95% of the 100 gallons of goat milk they produced each day. “It was like a punch in the gut.” They still had to pay all of their bills, feed their animals and children, and maintain their farm, yet they had no choice but to destroy everything they produced. For a few weeks amid the pandemic, they sold milk to food banks around the Fingerling Lakes through a new creamery, which kept them afloat for a little while, but then their funds ran out as well. To try and preserve some of their milk, Andrew and Blake decided to start bottling their goat milk for later distribution. Blake discovered that goat milk, unlike many baby formulas, is the most easily digestible milk by babies. However, they still had nowhere to send these bottles.

Blake found out about FarmLink by chatting with people at local food banks. Together, they found two organizations eager to receive Blake and Andrew’s bottled goat milk – the North Country Prenatal Perinatal Council and Mercy Church. The NCPPC services women and young families and used 300 quarts of Blake’s milk as baby formula. Mercy Church received the remaining 150 quarts of milk. Mercy Church will distribute the goat milk at their bi-weekly soup kitchens that feed hundreds of people in the upstate area. Blake says, “I’m just so happy that we worked out a way to get this milk back to the people instead of dumping it.

FarmLink also partnered with Food Rescue US – Detroit to help deliver 40,000 pounds of potatoes from a farm in Washington state and 1,430 boxes of fresh produce (equaling 35,750 pounds) from Pacific Produce to the people of Detroit. Thanks to the help of local farms and packaging facilities, FarmLink has been able to help facilitate surplus produce to places and communities in need. Farmers across the US have struggled to unload their produce as a result of declining demand in the food service industry. In order to help fill in gaps of food insecurity, both farmers and packaging facilities alike have stepped up to share the burden of helping to distribute their extra food. The FarmLink team is incredibly thankful for the generous work of both farmers and packaging facilities which directly benefits communities in need of assistance.

FarmLink works with United Hands Food Bank, a neighborhood-run non-profit serving low-income families in the Compton, Los Angeles, and one of the organizations that received a shipment of 450,000 potatoes. United Hands distributed the potatoes to more than 2,000 families at their weekly food giveaway.

“It was a blessing that came from above,” Martha from United Hands said. She had planned to buy potatoes that day, but the shipment provided them with enough food to feed every individual that attended their giveaway. Martha said that since the coronavirus outbreak, members of the community begin to line up at 9:00 am for an event that starts at 2:00 pm. “If you have people lining up in the hot sun for hours, that’s how you know it’s bad.”

Martha also reported a large increase of men and children in line. At the last giveaway, more than sixty men laid off from the same company that day stood in line for the potatoes and other produce. She also saw more children waiting – staying home from school deprives them of school lunches, which for many of them is their only meal of the day.

FarmLink also works with Navajo Nation Potato Delivery. As of this writing, 4,000 positive cases were confirmed in Navajo Nation. FarmLink facilitated the delivery of more than 40,000 pounds of potatoes that would have otherwise gone to waste, from Desert Ridge Farm, in Moses Lake, Washington, to the Navajo Nation communities in New Mexico and Arizona.

The Navajo Nation Christian Response team received and distributed the potatoes throughout the reservation with the help of several other local organizations. Christian Vazquez of Strengthening Nations reiterated the scarcity of basic produce, like potatoes. “We don’t usually have [potatoes] in that bulk and wow, that was awesome,” he said, referencing the truckload of potatoes. “The produce is usually the first thing to go. It’s really fulfilling getting things to people who really need them." Potatoes rise above the level of a staple; they nourish people and help build connections between communities, from Washington to New Mexico and Arizona. These kinds of connections provide hope – even for those fighting personal battles – in the time of coronavirus.

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Food Connect reports that they launched home deliveries in partnership with a local hospital and a food vendor that provides fresh produce boxes, resulting in three major wins:

1. They are supporting local farmers who were impacted by COVID-19, because the produce boxes were purchased from the farmers;
2. The hospital has identified food insecure households, and many of these households lack access to public transportation, so Food Connect is delivering much needed fresh produce to households that would have otherwise been left out of traditional relief services; and
3. They plan to more than double the reach of the program, so that more families are supported.

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Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Food Forward operated a collaborative monthly fruit and vegetable distribution in Inglewood with its close partner, Social Justice Learning Institute (SJLI). These community events proved to be an efficient way to distribute recovered wholesale produce to hundreds of families from Inglewood Unified School District and the local community. As the economic impacts of the pandemic spread across California, Food Forward and SJLI were able to move this monthly distribution event to a weekly basis. Previously, 12-13,000 pounds per month were distributed, but now Food Forward is distributing 55,000 pounds on a monthly basis. In addition, while the Inglewood distribution previously served up to 200 participants, Food Forward is now able to donate produce to 15+ local agencies at each event in addition to individual participants picking up produce.

Local agencies picking up produce at these events in turn use these nutritious fruits and vegetables to help feed the clients they serve. This food hub location shows the importance of flexibility and innovation in meeting emergency food needs – new practices and protocols have been rolled out for safety, and all produce is sorted and pre-bagged prior to distribution.

Food Forward also helped establish the Ventura Rapid Response Hub, an emergency produce distribution hub in partnership with Totally Local VC's Local Love Project (Local Love). Through this operation, Food Forward provides fresh fruits and vegetables to agencies that are feeding families in Ventura County. Food Forward has launched five new Rapid Response Hubs in response to the pandemic, to ensure communities across Los Angeles and Ventura Counties have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. These hubs are a direct response to the increased need in neighborhoods most affected by the loss of services.

At each location, a truckload of recovered produce is quickly distributed to multiple agency partners, who in turn distribute this food to their clients. One agency receiving produce from the Ventura Rapid Response Hub is a local partner that provides individuals experiencing homelessness and/or living with mental illness with basic needs like food and clothing. Since the pandemic’s onset, procuring enough food for their clients has been difficult. One representative from this agency partner said, “Food Forward is our savior! Without the work Food Forward is doing to get us produce through the hub, my residents would be in a really bad place with food insecurity.”

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FRA heard from Eat Greater Des Moines, a new Operation Fresh Produce Drop partner: "I wanted to add, specifically how much Eat Greater Des Moines (EGD) has helped the refugee and immigrant community. EGD was one of the first organizations to get fresh food to 250 refugee families from the Congo, Burundi, Eritrea, Karen, Karenni, and Chin. Even though they are beyond capacity, Aubrey hustled to find more resources to include the families we serve." EGD continues to provide food on a weekly basis with no bureaucratic hurdles, and they are finding and connecting the most marginalized communities with food. Their model is grassroots, creative, and responsive.

FRA heard from Laurie Andrews, President of the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole about Hole Food Rescue: “It's much harder to ensure that children have healthy and consistent meals during the summer. Hole Food Rescue created Sprout a few years ago to help feed children when school programs are closed. Sprout is a critical program for local youth, and never more so than this summer, when the coronavirus has affected parent incomes. We applaud Hole Food Rescue and its partners for the work they are doing to address food insecurity and to ensure our community is healthy and thriving this summer.”

From Boulder Food Rescue: “The Boulder Food Rescue NCGP program has been very beneficial to the residents here. We have been able to help provide not only good quality food from donations provided by Sprout's, Great Harvest Bakery, and the Boulder Valley School District, but we have been able to provide a small amount of relief from the economic hardship that many communities are experiencing today with the COVID-19 pandemic. We have been able to provide hope and help to many residents, and the program works. We have a constant flow of residents that use the program each week, and the residents that receive assistance from the Grocery Program range from young college students to single adults, to families with children, to elderly citizens. We have a spectacular delivery system in place, and all food that we receive is put to good use. After the residents are served, any remaining food is delivered to attention homes or shelters to help provide additional support to those most in need.”

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In Detroit, FRUS worked in partnership with local Chef Phil Jones and Make Food Not Waste Detroit to recover and distribute 97,000 pounds of cooked, frozen chicken. Dozens of volunteers came together to help distribute the chicken to more than 16 local social service agencies.

Working with Farm Link Project and the USDA, FRUS received 5,960 boxes of produce that were distributed in Detroit, MI; Chicago, IL; Fort Wayne, IN; and Hamilton, OH. They will be receiving these boxes on a weekly basis and hope to expand this program and be able to provide them to more locations throughout the country.

In Miami, FRUS launched a community kitchen in partnership with Kilgore Culinary and World Central Kitchen at the restaurant Alter. The kitchen was open for a total of two weeks, and one of the goals was to use excess produce/food to help create meals that would then be provided to people who are unemployed and food insecure. This was a way to ensure that Kilgore Culinary was not wasting any of the food they already had in-house, as they are looking to close Alter permanently.

In Northwest CT, FRUS partnered with the UConn extension, the local 4H, and Litchfield Community Center to distribute large donations of milk, yogurt, sour cream, and ice cream to more than 30 social service agency partners. In total, the partnership has distributed 8,640 half-gallons of whole milk donated by Guida's Dairy; 28,000 pounds of yogurt and sour cream donated by Cabot Creamery; and 33 pallets of ice cream donated by HP Hood.

FRUS has worked with a number of food providers to distribute excess food products during this time, including 20,000 meals from Tiller & Hatch, a brand of high-quality meals backed by Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez, which were provided to thousands of unemployed workers in the hospitality sector as a result of closures of hotels, restaurants, and bars. FRUS also received 45,000 burgers from Beyond Meat that were distributed to various agencies and turned into meals with the help of local restaurants.

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Forager says, “The truth is surplus will be with us as long as there are farmers growing food. The problem is that there's simply too much of it. The Forager platform holds promise as a part of an integrated solution to reducing on-farm surplus and generating new markets for producers.”

One of Forager's gleaning organizations who is struggling to stay afloat financially after well over a decade of work had this to say about Forager's program: “This [earned revenue model] is a life blood that gleaning organizations need. We know that gleaning is not a costless activity and gleaners would surely do more gleaning if they had more time in the fields and less time trying to raise funds.”

Forager's development partner and existing supplier and buyer networks stepped up to indicate interest in the gleaner program and provided critical feedback on the design of technology upgrades to Forager. Said one, "I am very interested in Forager, as our program has been running into issues of storage and distribution, and the ability to move food quickly, both to food banks and community members, is very appealing. I’d also love to support our farmers, and this seems like a great way to do so."

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According to FLPC, "In June, we launched two state policy tracking tools. The first, our State Policies for Feeding Marginalized Populations Tool, tracks state policies that facilitate food delivery, food at centralized pick-up locations, and funding to support emergency feeding programs. Our research emphasizes marginalized populations – including older adults, differently abled individuals, low-income households, children, and those experiencing homelessness.

"The second policy tracker looks at state-wide stay-at-home orders and advisories. This document emphasizes the impact of those orders and advisories and how they are treating the food system. These tools will serve as a vital resource for tracking best practices, identifying shortfalls, and helping direct practitioners to programs and funding.

"FLPC has synthesized information gathered through the policy trackers into a public Google sheet and will update the sheet regularly throughout the grant period, as well as publish several blog posts that analyze specific best practices or policy suggestions from the policies tracked. The trackers are available here.

"In addition to tracking state policies, FLPC is tracking and analyzing other federal bills such as the Heroes Act and the Food Supply Protection Act that have provisions for small farmers.

"In the coming weeks, several U.S. Senators will be introducing legislation that FLPC drafted in coordination with a larger coalition. The legislation includes several avenues to make it easier for food retailers to participate in online SNAP sales. As USDA has rolled out online SNAP sales in response to the pandemic, in most states, very few retailers or vendors are able to qualify for online SNAP sales, which is leading to excess food at some vendors and consolidation of the market in the hands of a few vendors. This legislation will make it easier for smaller vendors or independent retailers to accept online SNAP by providing funding to USDA to develop an online EBT payment portal serving smaller vendors and by providing funding for technical assistance to other retailers. We also anticipate that one of the Representatives we are working with will be introducing legislation to create several tax incentives for food donation, including expanding the existing enhanced deduction to include food offered for sale at a low price, creating a new deduction to cover the cost of transporting donated food, and creating an alternative tax credit that farmers can claim instead of the enhanced deduction."

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At the beginning of the pandemic, a food pantry director where HAH staff were volunteering reported that “50% of our services are going to first-time visitors.” More recently, the ongoing impacts of the pandemic are causing people who had moved beyond the need for food assistance to find themselves back in a crisis situation – and back in need of assistance.

HAH reports that they are partnering with the Washington State Trucking Association to connect existing trucking resources with newly donated loads of produce. This has proven to be a highly effective partnership, allowing them to move perishable loads between their hunger relief program sites, as well as from new donors. They have also developed partnerships with several new organizations to gather food destined to go to waste due to processing facility slowdowns related to COVID-19.

HAH heard from a farmer who has been participating in their new partnership with PCC Community Markets that "My dad [a second generation farmer in Washington, and representative of many of the small- to medium-scale growers who were impacted by COVID-19] was so excited about this opportunity. He started farming just to help other families be able to eat organically without the large cost! It’s truly a great feeling to help food banks and our communities anywhere we can."

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L&M reports that Dream Coat, a small local thrift store, was able to open back up and distribute produce boxes to community members in need. Helen McGee, a member of St. James United Methodist Church, used her network of Methodist churches and philanthropic organizations to develop a hub system for L&M's volunteer unloading and distribution. This allowed L&M's one truck to deliver to four or five "hubs" on Friday morning, which then distributed 500 boxes of produce throughout the community to families in need.

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A representative from Haley House, one of Lovin' Spoonfuls nonprofit partners, says, “Lovin' Spoonfuls' deliveries are the highlight of every Tuesday and Thursday. Especially all the greens!”

Another nonprofit partner says, "We would like to also express our sincere appreciation for your services to our Madison Park Development Corporation. The food distribution is a great resource for our residents and to the community that we serve. Not only through your services have we been able to provide the residents with food, there has also been an increase in social cohesion and a decrease in social isolation.”

The People Helping People Food Pantry, another nonprofit partner, says, “Our partnership with Lovin’ Spoonfuls has meant a tremendous increase in our access to fresh food. This includes prepared food as well as produce and meat, and it has meant a steady increase in the amount of food we can provide to our families.”

Paraclete, another nonprofit partner, says, “We are saving $20,000 annually on food due to the partnership with Lovin’ Spoonfuls, which is nearly 10% of our $250,000 annual budget.”

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Move for Hunger partner Premium Q Moving & Storage has been doing their part to help fight hunger in Massachusetts during the COVID-19 pandemic. Every Monday, Premium Q volunteers to pick up donations from the Greater Boston Food Bank and deliver it to Project Soup, a food pantry which is affiliated with the Greater Somerville Homeless Coalition (GSHC).

"We have been partnering with Move for Hunger for years, but when something like this pandemic happens, we knew we had to reach out," said Victor Chaves, Sales Manager at Premium Q Moving & Storage. "With so many lives being affected it was more apparent than ever that we needed to do whatever we could as a company. These are our neighbors, the ones that made Premium Q Moving what it is, and we were looking to help anyway we could. We really pride ourselves on not only providing a service, but really helping people out. So when our guys actually get to help out with something as meaningful as this, it just makes all the hard work worth it. Especially during a time like this."

One new potential partnership with the freight industry came through Move for Hunger's latest work with Commercial Carpet Logistics (CCL), a Maryland trucking company that services the flooring industry. CCL had received an email from the Maryland Motor Truck Association about Move For Hunger, and they wanted to volunteer their trucks and drivers to support COVID-19 relief efforts. Shortly thereafter, CCL picked up more than 119,000 pounds from Kraft Heinz and delivered it to the SHARE Food Program. Although CCL isn't a traditional moving company, they have the capacity to help and a willingness to support Move for Hunger's mission. “The pickup for Kraft Foods was only about 40 minutes from our terminal, and we set it up with Share Food in Philadelphia, and it went off [perfectly],” CCL’s Executive Vice President, Cassie Sealing, shared. “It was such a great experience. We want to inspire other carriers to get involved. If I can turn my efforts to giving back, I suddenly feel encouraged, I feel renewed. I needed the opportunity to give back, to help Move For Hunger, and it is inspiring to me in our own business.”

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Natural Upcycling reports that in mid-May, they partnered with fellow Fund grantee FarmLink to amplify their milk donation efforts. They collected and processed 4,000 gallons of milk, which were then hauled to the River Fund in New York City –FarmLink donated 2,000 gallons and the trucking, which Natural Upcycling matched. Natural Upcycling is now working on a recurring weekly donation project with New York State Senator Jessica Ramos's district in Queens.

On June 1, Natural Upcycling hosted a drive-thru milk distribution event in partnership with the Livingston County Farm Bureau. Natural Upcycling donated the milk and event signage/security, and LC Farm Bureau arranged publicity and volunteers. Natural Upcycling reports that the turnout was tremendous for such a rural area, with more than 1,100 gallons of milk distributed. Many of the families who benefitted were first-time recipients – by distributing the milk closer to their communities outside of the major cities, Natural Upcycling was effectively able to achieve “last-mile” delivery.

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A Denver coordinating partner says, “This is amazing, thank you! We have gotten a ton of compliments about the berries, cantaloupes, tomatoes, and broccoli. Our folks are just super grateful! Several Moms teared up again today! This work makes us feel so amazing.”

Another partner says, “It has been an amazing week. All the boxes will be distributed by the end of the holiday weekend. We made so many people cry yesterday, families who said they cannot remember the last time they ate a fresh piece of fruit or had enough fresh groceries to prepare a meal."

 “We had no idea we were picking up fresh, high quality produce. We assumed it was on the verge of spoiling. WOW! It’s beautiful produce. Thank you SO much! This is a huge blessing to our organization and all the families and children that will be receiving [it]," said another Denver local coordinating partner.

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City Harvest reports that Plentiful continues to scale – "Since COVID-19 hit NYC, we've seen a 6x increase in the number of user interactions on SMS and a 10x increase on Android. Additionally the % of reservations that our client booked have climbed from 12% to 35%."

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SeaShare described some of their work: "New York and Connecticut each received semi truckloads of pollock, over 37,000 pounds, nearly 150,000 servings, each. San Francisco received a semi truckload of bycatch salmon steaks. The feeding program at the Union Gospel Mission in downtown Seattle received almost 12,000 pounds of bycatch salmon and halibut. Bycatch whole salmon was sent to the food bank in Kodiak, AK and given to struggling senior citizens in the community.

SeaShare heard this from its partners at the Southeast Alaska Food Bank in Juneau, Alaska: "We took delivery yesterday of 14,681 pounds of SeaShare product and transferred the 15 pallets to our 40' freezer container [donated by SeaShare to the food bank in 2019]. Thank you for the product!"