It’s already old news that the COVID-19 Pandemic has disrupted everyone and everything, including Spring Food Drive Season.
For food banks and food pantries, the changes are dramatic:
- An increasing number of people who need help
- Fewer volunteers (many volunteers are older and at higher COVID-19 risk)
- Extra measures taken to protect the people working
- Spring food drives have been cancelled
A number of food banks and food pantries have turned to the #GiveHealthy platform to address these challenges, encouraging organizations and individuals to sponsor #GiveHealthy Drives as an alternative to Traditional Spring Food Drives.
Curbing Hunger just launched an Emergency GiveHealthy drive to support the Food Bank Network of Somerset County (NJ). Senator Alex Kasser recently launched a #GiveHealthy drive to support Neighbor to Neighbor, a food pantry in Connecticut.
The #GiveHealthy food drive solution enables people and organizations to ask their communities to participate while respecting shelter in place orders and maintaining social distance. It also cuts down on the handling work that food banks and pantries do compared to traditional drives, something that’s more important than ever due to fewer volunteers and added work due to COVID-19 protection measures.
More and more food banks and food pantries are using the #GiveHealthy platform to drive healthy food donations. City Harvest, located in NYC, and one of the country’s largest food banks, just completed their onboarding process to offer #GiveHealthy drives to organizations that want to support them with food donations.
#GiveHealthy is free for food banks and food pantries and helps in several important ways:
- Optimizes food donations by ensuring that food donations match what organizations are seeking
- Reduces the inspection and handling work normally associated with traditional food drives
- Grows the Donor base
- Has zero food waste
It’s easy for food banks and food pantries to get set up and it’s easy for organizations to get their #GiveHealthy food drive up and running. It’s a great solution for all of the organizations that have cancelled their planned spring food drives and still want to offer support with donated food.
