Atlanta Community Food Bank receives $750K grant to boost food rescue efforts

Southeast Atlanta Seventh Day Baptist is one of Atlanta Public Food Bank s partner agencies that received a truck to rescue food Courtesy ACFB The Atlanta Neighborhood Food Bank publicized in the modern day a grant from Walmart and Feeding America part of a continuing multi-year partnership to strengthen food donation efforts between food banks partner agencies and local retailers Funded by Walmart and awarded to food banks in the Feeding America grid of local food banks the Retail Agency Quota Grant equips food banks partner agencies including food pantries and meal programs with equipment vehicles and staff to assistance food rescue efforts in which grocers donate fresh frozen and shelf-stable foods to food banks and agency partners The Atlanta Neighborhood Food Bank is applying the grant funds to the purchase of eight trucks and one van for selected partner agencies Covington First United Methodist Church Dawson Society Foodbank Inc Never Alone Mount Pleasant Baptist Church Reflections of Trinity Selina Ellis Cares Southeast Atlanta Seventh Day Baptist and The River Region will use the trucks and van to conduct direct retail pick-ups at Walmart and Sam s Club locations This access to fresh produce and other perishable food items will increase the amount of nutritious and healthy food available to neighbors in need Since the Atlanta Society Food Bank has increased the amount of fresh produce meats and other perishables offered to our partners and these items now account for percent of the food we distribute But properly transporting these items requires specialized equipment explained Kyle Waide President and CEO of the Atlanta Population Food Bank This grant from Walmart allows us to expand our commitment to providing healthy and nutritious food options by providing eight partner agencies with vehicles that can safely movement perishables With these grants Walmart has donated a total of million to food banks and hundreds of partner agencies to increase their threshold to recover and distribute fresh food These investments have led to substantial increases in the number of weekly donated food pickups through new equipment like refrigerated vans added staff and new mechanism and training Increasing access to food is key to Walmart s purpose to help people to live better and we ve been working with Feeding America for the past years to help local food banks and agencies recover and distribute more food donations commented Julie Gehrki Senior Vice President at Walmart and President of the Walmart Foundation We re honored to build on this work through our assistance of the Atlanta Neighborhood Food Bank We look forward to collaborating to get more fresh food to people who need it This year s grant announcement continues a celebration of years of partnership between Walmart Sam s Club and Feeding America that s grown into one of the the majority transformative collaborations in the hunger relief space with approximately million in donations including more than million from the company and the Walmart Foundation and nearly million from customers and members Walmart and Sam s Club have also donated more than billion pounds of food to the Feeding America grid of local food banks and partner agencies since making them Feeding America s largest corporate donor The post Atlanta Public Food Bank receives K grant to boost food rescue efforts appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta