Food Bank of the Southern Tier
Yesterday for the first time in 50 years the Biden Administration hosted a White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health with the goal of ending hunger by the year 2030. Members of the Food Bank of the Southern Tier were in attendance at the conference working to stamp out hunger locally.
The difference between “Food Bank” and “Food Pantry”
Many communities have a local “food pantry”, sometimes mistakenly called a “food bank.” Most of these community food pantries are sponsored by local area churches and/or community coalitions.
A food bank is the storehouse for millions of pounds of food and other products that go out to the community. A food pantry functions as the arms that reach out to that community directly.
“We need more affordable accessible food in the communities, we need more money in our pockets as families and as parents to feed our children. We need better meals at schools for our children we need free meals and free breakfast for our kids all year long. We live in AMERICA We can produce enough food to feed our entire country and then some but yet we are failing at it,” Lee said.
Who We Serve
In 2020, the Food Bank distributed more than 17.6 million pounds of food and grocery items through three main channels:
- More than 155 partner agencies, including food pantries, meal programs, shelters, after-school programs, and senior programs
- Food Bank direct-service programs: Mobile Food Pantry, BackPack, and Kids Farmers Market
- A partnership with CHOW in Broome County*
* Working in Partnership to Meet the Need
CHOW and the Food Bank of the Southern Tier work in partnership to leverage national, regional, and local resources to end hunger in Broome County. CHOW operates as its own entity, receiving food from the Food Bank of the Southern Tier and relying on food and monetary donations from local residents, organizations and companies to fulfill our collective mission of ending hunger for all.
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