Food banks keep getting bigger

Today, increased demand for food driven by the pandemic is putting even more pressure on food banks. Those in the Feeding America network reported a 60% increase in demand early in the pandemic and continue to see steady or increased demand compared to the month before, according to Feeding America.

At the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, capacity is so constrained that it must sometimes turn away donations of food, according to its capital campaign literature. Since 2005, the food bank has tripled the amount of food it distributes. River Bend Food Bank is in a similar situation. “We’re three times the size we were in 2014,” said Mike Miller, President and CEO, making the food bank’s planned expansion “more like a right-sizing.”

Within the context of dramatically increased demand, bigger food banks are a no-brainer. But it’s also worth noting that many food banks often talk about the need to address the root causes of poverty so they can put themselves out of business. It’s an end goal that seems further out of reach with every square foot of additional warehouse space.

Joshua Lohnes, Food Policy Research Director at the Center for Resilient Communities at West Virginia University, doesn’t see food banks going away, noting that West Virginia’s two food banks are the state’s largest food hubs. In fact, food banks are enjoying an expansion of their social power, along with their footprints, Lohnes said, as they attract more philanthropic dollars and good will from their communities. 

“My question to food banks is:  ‘How will they wield this social power?’” said Lohnes, who is also a member of the Global Solidarity Alliance. “Will they use their infrastructure to transform the food system based on the principles of food justice? Or will they use it to continue to reinforce the power of the agro-industrial food system? That’s a question we need to continue to pose in the midst of this expansion.”

In fact, some food bankers say, bigger food banking does not present a contradiction in a society that tolerates having large segments of the population remain unable to meet their basic needs even when they work. “It’s now to the point where it’s a conscious choice in the United States that we’re going to have people not able to meet their needs,” said Brian Greene, President and CEO of Houston Food Bank. “And as long as that’s going on, we do this.”

Waide of Atlanta Community Food Bank also sees the need for a “great, robust public policy solution.” Until that happens, the food bank can provide relief by helping to free up more of the family budget. “Families have more resources to address other challenges and invest in the future,” he said.

Some food banks are expanding, but in ways that are consistent with also transferring power to others. The Greater Chicago Food Depository, for example, has modified its planned expansion of about 60,000 square feet into a smaller, redesigned building that will no longer have meeting space for community groups. The food bank learned during the pandemic that community meetings need to happen out in the communities, said Kate Maehr, Executive Director and CEO, who was named Food Bank News’ Food Bank CEO of the Year in 2021. 

“We’re committed to convening, but that convening does not need to happen in our building,” she said.

Good Shepherd Food Bank is also applying lessons learned during the pandemic to its investment plans. “The pandemic really put a spotlight on our complete inadequacy of meeting the needs of communities of color in Maine,” said Kristen Miale, President. 

Those communities are not interested in participating in traditional food bank programs, she said. Rather, “we’re going to be investing a lot more in community organizing and supporting grassroots organizations that are really doing on-the-ground organizing.”