Food Security & Economic Justice

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The Food Security Action Team meets every two weeks to better understand the reasons why neighborhood residents are struggling to put food on the table, discuss ways to help expand the reach of neighborhood food pantries, and promote local food distributions. The Action Team includes residents, community organizations and other stakeholders.

The Food Pantry Network is made up of neighborhood-based pantries. The Network meets regularly to share resources and collaboratively troubleshoot any challenges. The goal is to build capacity of local pantries, connecitng them with a sustainable food distribution source and layering additional support services to pantry distributions to help residents increase their incomes and access public benefits.

The top two issues identified by local pantries was access to proper storage and refrigeration. These challenges limit what donations pantry providers are able to accept, based on what they believe they can distribute same day without storage. The Food Pantry Hub will provide storage and refrigeration space for local pantries and will also feature a teaching garden to engage and provide resources to area community gardeners.