Farm to Food Banks
Food banks across America have traditionally operated to feed hungry people and families, becoming a primary way we address food insecurity in this country. In Arizona, there are five major food banks with over 1,000 food pantries serving as pick-up and drop-off locations across the state. However, 937,000 people, or one in six Arizonans, are food-insecure—meaning they lack the resources to consistently obtain healthy food for their household. With millions of pounds of produce, meat, eggs, and dairy products produced in the state, 17% of Arizonans should not go hungry.
While food banks were not originally designed as a way to address the underlying causes of food insecurity, we can reimagine and redesign them in a way where they do become part of a holistic solution to addressing access to food.
Reimagining the Role of Food Banks
Beyond being a place for surplus food to be stored and distributed, food banks can also be places to invest in people, land, and communities. They can, and are, helping to connect people to healthy, fresh produce and protein and connecting growers to the communities they are feeding.
Food banks can serve as regional facilities where farms deliver their farm-fresh products, and instead of having excess farm food turn into expensive fertilizer, it is now food distributed to communities. Local growers already participate in a number of ways to address food security, such as through SNAP Double Up Food Bucks program, CSA boxes, and direct donations to food banks. And now, they are partnering with Arizona food banks to directly feed communities and build a community-sustainable model for food security.
Partnering with Food Banks
Arizona Friends of the Farm Program
Learn more about the connections between farms and food banks - watch the Good Food Film: here.
Friends of the Farm is a pilot farm-to-food bank program that connects Arizona’s small growers with food-insecure families. With funding support from the Governor’s office, the program pays local farms for Arizona-grown fruits, vegetables, diary, eggs, and meat that is distributed via Arizona’s network of food banks. Over 25 small farms, ranches, and cooperatives in six different counties within Arizona have partnered with participating food banks to store and distribute nearly 322 million pounds of fresh, Arizona-grown food.
This model creates a reliable market that pays farmers a fair price, offers food variety to food bank recipients, and strengthens Arizona’s food system by helping to sustain small farms, ranches, and cooperatives across the state. Now small-scale producers can move beyond just donating their surplus food to Arizona food banks and also intentionally feed their community while ensuring their own livelihoods.
USDA Farm to Food Bank Project Grants
The purpose of the USDA Farm to Food Bank Projects is to (a) reduce food waste at the agricultural production, processing, or distribution level through the donation of food, (b) provide food to individuals in need, and (c) build relationships between agricultural producers, processors, and distributors and emergency feeding organizations through the donation of food. Funding administered through state agencies pays for projects to harvest, process, package, or transport commodities donated by agricultural producers, processors, or distributors.
A New Model for Food Sustainability : United Food Bank & Nalwoodi Denzhone Community
Watch the entire Good Food Film: here.
United Food Bank serves communities between Eastern Maricopa County and the White Mountains. Their Mesa facility is equipped with ample dry storage and refrigerated space so they can ensure large volumes of fresh, unsold produce from Arizona farmers like Duncan Family Farms and Cruz Farm are safely and effectively redistributed to those who need it. They are ensuring that the communities they serve, like the San Carlos Apache Reservation where fresh produce has been difficult to procure, are receiving food that is nutritionally and culturally appropriate.
Access to these heritage foods has catalyzed the start of Nalwoodi Denzhone Community (NDC). United Food Bank has provided hundreds of boxes of food that were redistributed to tribal departments and small communities, and due to the partnership with the food bank, NDC has been able to become a near self-sustaining community— growing nearly 3,000 lbs of produce in 2020. At Old Tree Farm, they grow foods that are native to the land but had previously been lost, like Apache Giant Squash and Apache Red Sugarcane. This partnership shows the transformational power that local growers and Arizona food banks can bring to a community.
Other Organizations Helping to Distribute Local Food
Iskashitaa Refugee Network in Tucson, AZ is a network of United Nations refugees and volunteers that locate, harvest, and re-distribute local produce that would otherwise go to waste.
Cosechando Bienestar in Nogales, AZ is a community-based collective that brings participants together to identify and harvest excess fruit and food to be redistributed through the Nogales “Little” Mercado Farmer’s Market.
Borderlands Produce Rescue’s Produce on Wheels and the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona organize produce gleaning activities that re-distribute unwanted food, nourishing individuals and families that need it while also addressing food waste.