Mobile Food Pantry
Jan 18, 2012 –
Northeast, TN – Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee announces they are the recipient of a $40,000 grant from Walmart State Giving to benefit the Food Bank’s Mobile Food Pantry program. This program provides assistance to people in communities that have little or no access to food. The Walmart State Giving Grant, along with a new truck donated recently from the American Idol Gives Back Foundation and Feeding America, enables the Food Bank to expand its Mobile Food Pantry program.
During Fiscal Year 2012, the Mobile Food Pantry made 170 distributions, giving out over 397,000 pounds of food. Currently the Mobile Food Pantry is serving 22 sites in Northeast Tennessee. By 2013 the Food Bank hopes to serve 45 sites per month with the Mobile Pantry. The Mobile Food Pantry began as a pilot project in October of 2009. Second Harvest’s extensive gap analysis has identified communities in every county of its service area where people may not have enough access to retail stores, food pantries, soup kitchens, and other resources, along with a significant proportion of individuals living at or below the poverty level. These communities are targeted for the expansion of the Mobile Food Pantry Program. The Food Bank also plans to add sites in the other counties, and will increase the amount and nutritional quality of food included in each box distributed.
Through the State Giving Program, the Walmart Foundation supports organizations with programs that align with their mission to create opportunities so people can live better. Walmart and the Walmart Foundation’s current focus is on hunger relief efforts in the U.S. in order to support the record 1 in 6 Americans who do not know where their next meal is coming from. Walmart’s network of more than 4,000 store and club locations provided more than $11.9 million in funding to state and local-level organizations last year.
In addition to the Walmart Foundation Grant, the Food Bank is pleased to announce that one of their agencies, New Victory Baptist Church Help Center, Jonesborough, TN was the recipient of one of twelve $10,000 grants awarded during Walmart’s “12 Days of Giving” Facebook campaign. New Victory was chosen from more than 5,400 nominations from Facebook users who shared photos and descriptions of the nonprofit’s impact on their local community.
Over 8 million pounds of food and grocery products were distributed by the Food Bank during 2011, enough for over 5 million meals. During 2011 food bank agencies and programs served over 36,000 individuals per month. The Food Bank encourages the community to get involved in helping feed the hungry in Northeast Tennessee. Ways to help include making a monetary donation, becoming a Food Bank agency, volunteering or holding a food drive to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee. Visit the Food Bank’s website http://www.netfoodbank.org for more information.
Second Harvest Food Bank 