Key takeaways from webinar about hunger relief in MN
On November 19, Every Meal hosted an informational webinar to share more about the hunger relief space in Minnesota. Titled Food Banks, Food Shelves, Food Programs – What’s the Difference?, the webinar was presented by Every Meal’s President and Founder Rob Williams, who described Every Meal’s unique role in this space.
Hunger relief organizations like food banks, food shelves, and food programs play critical roles in addressing food insecurity nationwide and right here in Minnesota. However, their structures and methods differ in how they approach hunger in the community. Every Meal, as highlighted in the webinar, is not a food bank or food shelf in the traditional sense. Instead, it combines some elements from these model to target a specific issue: child hunger in Minnesota, especially on the weekends.
Here are the key insights shared during the webinar.
Breaking Down the Hunger Relief Landscape
The session began by describing the ways food banks and food shelves generally work:
- Food Banks act as “wholesalers,” sourcing food in bulk from suppliers and manufacturers or bulk donations. They distribute the food to food shelves.
- Food Shelves, or also known as food pantries, act as “retailers,” providing a place for individuals and families in need to get free food.
Every Meal’s Unique Approach
Every Meal combines some elements from these traditional models with innovative approaches to create our own model that targets the food gaps kids are experiencing and are not currently addressed by government-funded programs. Our unique structure makes us one of the largest nonprofits in Minnesota that delivers food right into the hands of children experiencing food insecurity.
Key features of Every Meal’s model include:
Supply chain expertise: We were founded with the belief that hunger isn’t a supply problem; it’s a distribution problem. Like a “food bank,” we source food in bulk from suppliers and manufacturers and manage the inventory at all points throughout our network. Rather than distributing to a network of food shelves, we deliver assembled food bags to our partner schools throughout Minnesota.
Community and school partnerships: Like a “food shelf,” our food is for free to kids and families in need. Where and how they receive it is the big difference – at school. Each week, volunteers place food bags directly and discreetly in kids’ backpacks to take home for the weekend. One of our core values is relationships and we’ve taken great care to form partnerships in each community to connect schools in need with local businesses, faith communities, service organizations, and corporations who help provide funding and volunteering for our Weekend Meal Program.
Learn More
We hope this webinar and recap has helped you come away with new nuggets of information and inspired by the unique way Every Meal is filling the food gaps for children in Minnesota.
This was the fourth and last webinar in our Don’t Miss a Beet webinar series this year. To learn more about child hunger in Minnesota and our work to fight it, listen to the full series here.