#GiveHealthy January News
A 2025 Thank You and The New Food Pyramid!
Welcome to the #GIVEHEALTHY Monthly Newsletter
designed to keep you informed and inspired. Our digital food drive system is built to eliminate traditional challenges, match donations to real needs, and strengthen donor relationships. Because hunger is a health issue, and better food means greater impact, we’re here to support food banks and pantries with smarter tools and meaningful updates each month.
As we begin a new year, we want to take a moment to say thank you for everything you accomplished in 2025. Your dedication to providing nutritious food to individuals and families across your community inspires us every day.
This past year, #GiveHealthy experienced record growth—a direct reflection of the powerful work you do and the commitment of organizations like yours to ensuring that healthy food reaches the people who need it most.
Whether through your partnership on digital food drives, your collaboration to coordinate deliveries, or your role in engaging your community around healthier giving, you helped make 2025 our most impactful year yet.
We’re proud to work with you and grateful for:
- Your leadership in advancing healthy hunger-relief
- Your partnership throughout a record-setting year
- Your dedication to dignity, nutrition, and community impact
Looking ahead, we’re excited to build on this momentum together in 2026. We’re committed to expanding the #GiveHealthy movement, supporting more drive organizers, improving our tools, and ultimately helping you bring even more healthy food to the people you serve.
2026 is going to be big!
We’re going to be introducing so many new tools and resources, we’ve set up a whole new demo to cover them!
#GiveHealthy Spotlight
The New Food Pyramid!
The modern food pyramid reflects what nutrition experts have been telling us for years: health starts with balanced access to fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins. Yet for millions of families relying on food banks and pantries, those foods are often the hardest to come by. #GiveHealthy exists to help close that gap. Offering a #GiveHealthy food drive option is a great way to ensure food donations reflect the important changes stemming from the new food pyramid, supporting not just full plates, but a healthier community.
Current News
Student Stories Drive $1 Million Advocacy Win in Michigan
Students from Michigan State University’s Spartan Food Security Council successfully helped secure $1 million in the Michigan state budget to fight college food insecurity by centering their campaign on the lived experiences of students facing hunger. Their advocacy, supported by a partnership with Swipe Out Hunger, expanded food security funding from a pilot program on four campuses to a statewide initiative. By training peers to share powerful personal stories with legislators and building a broad coalition of student voices, they made a compelling case for urgent investment in student food access.
(Food Bank News, 5 minute read)
In a First, Screening Tool Leads Way to Medicaid Food Assistance
God’s Love We Deliver (GLWD) has introduced an online screening tool that helps people check if they qualify for food assistance covered through Medicaid, offering a new way to connect those in need with medically tailored meals or groceries as SNAP benefits face increasing restrictions. The tool directs eligible individuals to services where GLWD delivers food and is fully reimbursed by Medicaid, supported by an 1115 waiver that expands reach and increases funding stability for nutrition services. This approach not only helps more people access essential food support but also allows GLWD to bill for both meals and community health worker assistance, creating a more sustainable funding model. The initiative marks a notable example of a hunger-relief organization using healthcare pathways to address food insecurity more effectively.
(Food Bank News, 4 minute read)
Even as SNAP Resumes, New Work Rules Threaten Access for Years To Come
A new federal budget law known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act expands work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), meaning many more adults — including parents, older adults, veterans, and formerly exempt groups — must document work, volunteering, or training hours to keep benefits. Because of these changes, people who don’t meet reporting rules risk losing SNAP for up to three years, and the Congressional Budget Office estimates millions could be dropped from the program over the next decade. The changes also limit states’ ability to waive requirements in high-unemployment areas and shift some costs to states if they fail to comply. Anti-hunger advocates warn the new rules could increase hunger and create administrative barriers that make it harder for struggling families to access food assistance.
(KFF Health News, 6 minute read
