Bringing Hunger Relief on the Road

by Greg Plotkin · 2010-01-06 20:13:00 UTC
Topics:

As the demand for food assistance has continued to outpace the capacity of hunger relief organizations across the country, many food banks and soup kitchens have been forced to come up with innovative new approaches to meet the needs of a growing group of hungry Americans.

For example, a food bank in Florida has started to send staff out to food pantries and soup kitchens to help clients apply for and take advantage of food stamp benefits; and in Colorado, a food bank is using computer software purchased at a discount from UPS to manage its distribution routes (saving an estimated $50,000 a year in fuel costs that can instead be used to feed the hungry).

In Central California, Second Harvest Food Bank has gone a step further and purchased -- with the help of its largest corporate donor, Symantec -- a new hybrid tractor trailer that can hold between 10,000 and 15,000 pounds of fresh food at one time.

With this new mobile food distribution vehicle, Second Harvest will be able to open 14 new sites across Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties that will feed more than 21,000 individuals each month.

In addition to being able to feed more of the region's hungry, the purchase of the hybrid trailer will allow Second Harvest to save 30% on fuel costs -- money that will instead be reinvested in community food programs.

Do you have an innovative idea for how communities can address food insecurity?  If so, leave us a message and let us know!

(Photo credit: didbygraham on Flickr)

Greg Plotkin currently works for Flying Pigs Farm in Shushan, NY. He is dedicated to eliminating inequalities in who has access to healthy food and alleviating hunger.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Homeless Children, In Their Own Words
NEXT STORY:
Is the NCAA Putting Student Athletes at Risk?

COMMENTS (0)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.