America's food system is broken. Many Americans are not getting enough to eat as witnessed by the 12% increase in school lunch enrollment during 2008. Food Banks across the U.S. are experiencing longer lines, less donated food and, at times, empty shelves. And some people are going home hungry because they can't get to their local food pantry during pantry hours.

From mobilizing food pantries to sharing school kitchen space to feed and teach those in need, volunteers are creating new distribution strategies to help meet the nutritional needs of others in their community. Volunteers at the East Texas Food Bank deliver groceries to 100 low-income families by refrigerated truck. The Northern Illinois Food Bank is expanding their mobile delivery to over 200. Feeding America, which solicits and distributes donated food to 206 Food Banks across the nation, will set up 25 more mobile pantries over the next three years. These groups are joined by organizations like Meals on Wheels Association of America in providing nutritional services to the elderly, home bound, disabled, frail, or at risk.

The Campus Kitchens Project, operating under their parent organization DC Central Kitchen, has provided more than 640,000 meals since 2001. Students from 12 national Universities, Colleges and High Schools volunteer campus kitchen space and their time to feed America's hungry. The food is donated by campus dining halls, local food banks, restaurants and farmers markets; then prepared and delivered by students to needy individuals and local agencies. The program encourages service learning and leadership skills by allowing the students to develop meal plans and cooking shifts, culinary job trainings and nutritional lesson plans for their community. The Campus Kitchens Project offers a three-year grant to educational institutions interested in sharing their kitchen or dining halls to prepare and deliver these services.

Although, these citizen initiatives are recognized for their exceptional community service, this growing need to mobilize and expand our food pantries and feeding programs exemplifies America's need to fix a very broken food system.

More Information:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/23/AR200901... http://www.campuskitchens.org/
http://feedingamerica.org/
http://www.setxfoodbank.org/1044590.html
http://www.communityfoodshare.org/mobilepantry.htm
http://www.northernilfoodbank.org/menu-side-hungerprograms-mobilepantry.... http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/2294

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