What Food Banks Need Most This Holiday Season

With the holidays on the horizon, it’s quite possible that you’re putting together a basket full of food for a less-fortunate family. While classic donations (like canned tuna) are undoubtedly useful, there’s a plethora of other needs that go unfulfilled.
As reported by Foodlets’ Charity Curley Matthews, here are some ideas on what food banks actually need:
1. Canned meat (other than tuna). The need for this is universally reported.
2. Low sodium canned vegetables and fruit (packaged in juice). Organizations receive mostly green beans and pineapple, so other varieties are particularly desired.
3. Snacks for kids, such as granola bars and popcorn.
4. 100 percent fruit juices in single-serving boxes.
5. Canned food with pop-top lids, which the homeless can open without a can opener.
6. Baby food. Take Part mentions how impoverished parents have a serious fear of inconsistent food for infants.
7. Personal hygiene products. Take Part also reports that, when given food stamps, people often overlook the need for products like toilet paper.
8. Low-sugar breakfast foods like Cheerios and instant oatmeal.
9. Feminine products. Foodlets states that unscented pads are the most useful.
10. Holiday foods. This is an important one, with food shelters hoping to receive things such as canned turkey (some will even accept whole turkeys and hams), sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce.
Click here for other items that you should consider donating.
MORE: 50 Million Americans Suffer From Food Insecurity. Here Are 6 Simple Ways You Can Help

What If You Could Do More Than Feed the Needy? This Food Bank Is Giving the Gift of Health

Every family deserves a healthy meal. Feeding America, which supplies nearly 23 million lbs. of food each year to hungry San Diegans, is trying to make sure they get one. Four years ago, the organization stopped accepting donations of sugary drinks and candy. Now, it’s preparing to go a step further by guaranteeing that its food bags will be 100% healthy in 2014 — less Honey Nut Cheerios, more fresh fruits and vegetables.
MORE: Chef Fixes the Food Bank by Creating Healthy Meals for Four
The move, which is funded in part by the Dennis and Pamela Mudd Charitable Foundation, is in direct response to families’ needs: for many, food donations aren’t just a stopgap anymore; they’re a long-term fix. It doesn’t help that temporary stimulus increases to food stamps and welfare assistance programs have expired in recent months. The good news is that food-bank recipients have embraced Feeding America’s initiative, consistently reporting that they’re satisfied with the healthier options. The idea that poor people only want junk food? It’s a myth.
 

Chef Fixes the Food Bank by Creating Healthy Meals for Four

The long lines were getting longer at the Capital Area Food Bank, and volunteers noticed a growing sense of hopelessness. Even when people came to the food bank for healthy foods, reports indicated that they were taking the fruits and vegetables home, only to fry or “shower” the produce with salt. Kate Sherwood, the executive chef of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, accepted the challenge of creating nutritious, enticing meals, for under $8 for four people. Her attitude was a fresh one–“You can’t get to healthy without delicious”–but her approach is scientific and data-driven. She comes up with a meal and tests it out with the food bank. She edits the recipe when necessary. And when it’s successful, she adds the recipe to an online database and prints cards in English and Spanish to distribute at more than 500 local agencies. It’s turning into an engaging local movement; the outreach goes as far as store cash registers and bags of donated items.

[Image: Capital Area Food Bank]