Here are some tips for identifying and connecting with hunger relief organizations in your community.
Who can benefit from food recovery?
Food Forward distributes recovered produce to hunger relief organizations that provide it to individuals across all ages and backgrounds experiencing food insecurity. This spans a wide range of social service sectors, including food banks, food pantries, transitional youth homes, veteran services, after-school programs, LGBTQ+ teen and adult programs, senior services, college student assistance programs, and programs serving people experiencing homelessness or living with disabilities.
Questions to consider
- Are you interested in operating your own food distribution and providing food directly to individuals, or do you want to donate recovered food to existing hunger relief programs?
- Are there hunger relief organizations or programs already providing food to people in your community?
- Is there a group or organization already recovering produce for these hunger relief organizations?
- Are the hunger relief organizations doing their own food recovery? Note: It is common for large food banks to participate in food recovery.
- Do the hunger relief programs in your community need more food? If so, what types of food do they need?
- What types of food do existing hunger relief programs provide to their recipients, such as fresh produce, shelf-stable items, meats, or dairy?
- Are your proposed food donations appropriate for the population being served? For example, whole, uncooked foods might be difficult for people experiencing homelessness to prepare.
- Do the hunger relief programs you want to work with have the capacity to manage recovered produce: necessary volunteers, transportation, storage, refrigeration etc.?
- How frequently do you expect to provide individuals or hunger relief organizations with food? Hunger relief programs often benefit from consistent donations of produce to supplement their regular food distributions.
Steps for getting started
Identify potential partner programs
Create pathways for organizations to connect with you. When determining new partners, key considerations include location of food distribution, the organization’s need for food (perishable versus shelf-stable), frequency of distributions, day and time of distribution, transportation needs, storage capacity, refrigeration needs, number of people served, volunteer network, and ability to manage waste.
Establish an onboarding process
- Create an interest form and determine how to distribute it.
- Survey organizations for initial information.
- Hold an initial meeting to understand their needs and determine compatibility.
- Draft an agreement or memorandum of understanding.
- Identify a point of contact for each partner organization.
Create a workflow for donations
- Coordinate donations to the hunger relief program.
- Establish scheduling, data management, and reporting processes.
- Build in regular feedback and engagement with each partner.
Strengthen the partner relationship
- Visit partner organizations regularly to ensure distributions align with shared expectations, understand how best to support their work, and assess opportunities for collaboration and growth.
- Pursue opportunities for cross-promotion and storytelling.
- Survey partners periodically to maintain current data and stay aware of their needs.
Additional considerations
- Are there areas in your community with high food insecurity that do not have access to food distributions?
- Are there hunger relief organizations in those areas with whom you could partner to contribute to an existing distribution or establish a new one?
- Existing food distributions in your community might only be held on weekdays when working people are less available.
- There may be distributions in your area that are open to anyone but held at locations where some people may feel unfamiliar or uncomfortable.
- Think about whether the food you provide is culturally familiar and appropriate for the community being served. For example, grapefruit is a food to avoid for senior citizens as it can interfere with certain medications.
- We recommend starting with only one or two partner organizations so you can better support their work and build strong relationships.
- Understand each partner’s quality and safety standards in regard to how they manage food and distributions.
- Consider how a partner organization manages organic waste.
- Think about what resources you can provide to help your partners be effective in supporting their community.
- Get the word out. Consider the best ways to reach the community that will benefit from the distribution, whether through social media, physical flyers, word of mouth, or other channels.