Webinar Training

The BackPack program helps alleviate child hunger by providing children with backpacks filled with child-friendly, non-perishable food at times when other food resources are not available such as weekends and vacations. Hear updates on the BackPack program and the USDA Trade Mitigation Food Purchase and Distribution Program, where the USDA purchases food from farmers and retailers and distributes it through local hunger relief organizations. Learn how the Food Bank of Alaska uses TEFAP items in the BackPack program and pick up tips and new ideas. Speakers include:

• Mya Price, Programs Specialist, Feeding America
• Michael Glymph, Legislative Manager, Government Relations, Feeding America

Webinar Training

Anti-Hunger Policy Conference 2023:

Led by USDA Food and Nutrition Service Administrator Cindy Long, this panel discusses recent policy changes that strengthen summer meal programs on the national and state level. 

Webinar Training

The December Choice Capacity Institute call featured initial findings from the evaluation conducted in the first half of the 2022 grant year. After the findings were shared out, participants joined breakout groups to discuss scenarios related to neighbor feedback at sites and then discussed resources to move the work forward for Choice.

Webinar Training

Volunteers are the lifeline for many pantry partners and sites. This session looks at how volunteers can impact and influence the work of supporting choice and what resources would make it easier to train volunteers for choice models. The session includes network spotlights and discussion, and the last part of the session explains how grantees can support the evaluation process. Spotlights include:

• Greater Cleveland Food Bank, Missy Harraman
• University Settlement, Grace Wright
• Care and Share Food Bank of Southern Colorado, Steven Williams

Webinar Training

The October Choice Capacity Institute call focused on building Choice into the conversation from the start. The purpose of this call is to explore the methods of building partnerships with Choice distribution models in mind. The call will spotlight network members that have made Choice a central tenet of their partnerships and featured food banks from Foodlink, Freestore Food Bank, and San Antonio Food Bank.

Webinar Training

This session focuses on choice programs during the pandemic. It starts with reviewing survey findings from grantees and other food banks on how the pandemic impacted choice programming. It then spotlights three food banks and how they addressed choice programming during the pandemic.  Following small group breakouts, the session ends with an evaluation component for the grantees. Spotlighted speakers include:

• Rosie, Food Finders Food Bank
• Laura Held, Foodlink
• Elizabeth Santiago, Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida

Webinar Training

The November Choice Capacity Institute call focused on tackling the ongoing challenges of increasing choice at sites, specifically discussing challenges related to collecting neighbor feedback, meeting school site capacity needs, reviewing site redesign, and building volunteer engagement in Choice distribution methods. Some initial evaluation results from the first round of neighbor and staff/volunteer surveys was shared during the call.

Webinar Training

How do you message choice in a way that is compelling to your donors and represents your neighbors positively? This session covers the fundamentals of strength-based messaging to help build inspiring messaging about choice directed toward donors and neighbors, including language that connects outputs to outcomes. At the end of the session, researchers from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago share preliminary results from surveying pantries about choice.

Webinar Training

This is the first session of the Choice Capacity Institute, which started as part of a multi-year grant through the Morgan Stanley Foundation to expand choice offerings to more families with kids. There will be several years of sessions addressing various issues related to "choice."

Choice can be seen along a continuum, with different levels of capacity for offering choice, whether using a pantry distribution, drive-through, or online model. This session highlights different ways to offer choice, acknowledging the impact of the pandemic on choice models, with a particular focus on how food banks are offering choice to families with children.

The session also provides an overview of OrderAhead, which is an online platform that allows neighbors facing food insecurity to place an order for charitable food and then pick it up at a time and place convenient for them. It was piloted in 2020 and is now available for all food banks to implement. The final part of the session explains the evaluation component that involves recipients of the grant. 

Webinar Training

This is the kick-off for the Choice Capacity Institute, which started as part of a multi-year grant through the Morgan Stanley Foundation to expand choice offerings to more families with kids. It provides a grant overview, reviews grant objectives and logistics, and outlines the goals and specifics of the Choice Capacity Institute. It also introduces the evaluation component of the grant and related expectations.

Webinar Training

Understanding neighbor food needs and preferences is the first step in addressing food insecurity with dignity and intention. Feeding America, food banks and partner agencies/sites discuss their ongoing work around this topic, including neighbor engagement methods and how to facilitate a successful focus group. There is a conversation on the importance of culturally preferred foods as a tool to reduce food waste. The last part of the session explains how grantees can support the evaluation process. Speakers include:

• Hanna Selekman, Feeding America
• Jacqueline Burke, Central California Food Bank
• Kristen Elliott, Atlanta Community Food Bank
• Louise Riley, Fishes and Loaves Pantry

Webinar Training

Learn about the latest fundraising trends within the network based on the FY21 NAR and Q4 QPR alongside national fundraising trends across sectors.

Webinar Training

What can choice look like?  This session considers physical space for different levels of choice, core elements of choice models and the pros and cons of each. The session spotlights a number of examples of choice, including what it takes to transition to a choice model. In breakout groups, participants brainstorm what a visual library of choice models might look like.  The session closes with a discussion of evaluation.

Webinar Training

A program partner can be anywhere along the continuum of choice, but sites may have practical concerns with implementation, so this session is intended to focus on brainstorming opportunities for increasing choice in the network, including looking at which sites might be good candidates for increasing choice. The session spotlights network members that are working with partners to encourage choice, and it includes breakout discussion groups and a conversation about evaluation. Spotlighted speakers include:

• Kari Hanna, Lowcountry Food Bank
• Ann Viancourt, Freestore Foodbank
• Steven Williams, Care and Share Food Bank

Webinar Training

Learn how how food banks can engage and support the initiative to collect visual examples of what choice looks like to create a visual library. See the results of the evaluation survey summarizing what the grantee cohort is planning to do collectively when it comes to partnering with agencies and sites to expand choice. Gain a deeper understanding of how grantees can continue to support the evaluation process.

Webinar Training

The September Choice Capacity Institute call discussed the various levels of Choice and introduced the new, upcoming resource: The Choice Visual Library. Register for the next Choice Capacity Institute call on October 11, 2022, on HungerNet!

Webinar Training

This training covers bidding in the Choice System.

Webinar Training

This training covers maroon load functionality in the Choice System.

Webinar Training

This training covers offers and receipts in the Choice System.

Webinar Training

This training covers the reports available in the Choice System.