Atlanta Community Food Bank

Product collection, storage and distribution:the Atlanta Community Food Bank (the Food Bank) serves as the central distribution center for nearly 700 community-based, nonprofit partner agencies that provide Food assistance in 29 metro Atlanta and north Georgia counties. These agencies include Food pantries, shelters, Community kitchens and other organizations offering Food for people who struggle with hunger, including children, working families and seniors. In an effort to help its agencies increase their ability to provide more Food and reach more people, the Food Bank also co-hosts mobile Food pantries. In addition, the Food Bank operates several programs that fulfill its mission including education outreach, benefits screening and more.food distribution:during fy 2022/23, the Food Bank distributed over 114 million pounds of Food and groceries through its network of community-based, nonprofit partner agencies offering Food assistance programs. Combined with approved snap applications, this was enough Food for over 97.6 million meals.the Food Bank recognizes that hunger and malnutrition go hand in hand. Therefore, we emphasize the nutritional quality of the Food distributed. In fy 2022/23, we distributed over 30.4 million pounds of fresh produce to partner agencies. Fresh produce is now the Food Bank's largest category of Food distributed, making up 26% of total pounds distributed to our neighbors in need.the Food Bank's retail store donation program has also been instrumental to the increased volume of nutritious Food distributed to partner agencies. In fy 2022/23, the Food Bank recovered over 31.1 million pounds of Food from 594 retail grocery stores throughout its service territory. In many instances we connect our partner agencies directly with these retail stores, speeding up recovery while reducing transportation costs and minimizing Food handling. The number of stores participating in direct-to-partner agency delivery (enabled deliveries) was 614. We rely heavily on volunteers, including individuals or business, Community, and school groups to help achieve our high level of impact. In fy 2022/23, nearly 39,000 volunteers gave approximately 97,000 hours of their time, the equivalent of 46 full-time staff members. Volunteers sorted and repacked Food and provided many other essential services. Mobile Food pantries also are an important part of our strategy to get more Food into the communities that we serve. In partnership with the Food Bank, agencies in 17 counties hosted a total of 951 mobile pantries in fy 2022/23 serving 241,760 households and distributing over 17 million pounds of food.in fy 2022/23 Atlanta Community Food Bank opened a second Community Food center in cobb county, joining the original Community Food center in gwinnett county. These locations distribute more than 160,000 pounds of Food directly to neighbors each month. In addition to the brick-and-mortar Community Food centers, fy 2022/23 also saw the launch of the home delivery program.

Education, advocacy and outreach:the Food Bank offers several programs, including Community education outreach, advocacy for public policies that reduce Food insecurity, and benefits outreach. Education outreach is an introduction to hunger and poverty issues in the u.s. and Georgia and includes a curriculum to facilitate hunger education. The advocacy program identifies effective strategies for combating Food insecurity and coordinates advocacy efforts to reach government representatives about issues affecting those who struggle with hunger. Benefits outreach workers help families and individuals by offering screenings and enrollment support for public benefits to help make ends meet. In fy 2022/23, our education team conducted 167 hunger 101 workshops and education sessions for more than 3,810 individuals from elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges, universities, faith, civic, and corporate groups.in fy 2021/22, benefits outreach staff completed 9,738 snap (Food stamp) applications for clients, a 11% increase versus prior year.