Food News

Washington- The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has started a Feds Feed Families program. The program is a voluntary food drive to encourage federal employees to make in-kind contributions such as food, services, and time to food banks and pantries. The theme for this year is- Fighting Hunger-Giving Hope.

USDA Deputy Secretary said, “We’re the richest country on earth. But even here, people are hungry, and people don’t have enough food” at the launch event in Washington throwing light on food and nutrition insecurity and the importance of donating food to local food banks.

There are a variety of effective nutrition assistance programs operated by USDA to meet people’s basic food and nutrition needs including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and school meal programs.

Federal employees can supplement government programs by supporting food banks and pantries via the feds feed families campaign.

Launched in 2009, the campaign raised more than 8 Million pounds of food and donations to food systems. The main reason for launching the summer campaign is to help food banks meet the increased demand for food during summer break. It is because donations are less during summer breaks and children do not have access to school meal programs.

Launching such campaigns is vital to provide essential food to people daily. There are millions of food insecure people such as minorities, families with children, and veterans who don’t have access to food due to which they go to food pantries but are unable to find fresh food always.

Another program known as AmpleHarvest was launched to connect home and community gardeners directly with local food pantries to accept their produce as donations. The program is meant specifically for the Native American reservations.

A key partner in the annual summer campaign is the Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB). The households are still recovering from the challenges they faced during the past two years such as higher food prices. The Feds feed family campaign also strives to make America’s communities stronger by supporting food banks nationwide.