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Food banks view farmers as critical partners

An executive director of a Feeding America state affiliate says partnerships with farmers are increasingly important to provide local food to those in need.

Emily Weikert Bryant with Feeding Indiana’s Hungry tells Brownfield since the pandemic, there’s been a significant increase in the ability to work directly with farmers through local food procurement programs and regional cooperatives in their network.

“We’ve seen a growing path for that with the creation of co-ops in the Feeding America Network, working to make sure that we’re getting it as local as much as we can because, really frankly, the cost efficiency is so much better anyway,” she shares.

She says inflation and the end of additional pandemic assistance have created an influx in demand at food banks this year.

“We’ve seen the numbers consistently rising at our food banks and the pantries that they serve since about June of 2022,” she shares.

Weikert Bryant says she’s hopeful a strong farm bill will include additional assistance for USDA commodity food programs along with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

She says the SNAP Program can provide nine meals for every one distributed by a Feeding America affiliate food bank. 

Brownfield interviewed Weikert Bryant during the recent Indiana Farm Bureau Annual Meeting.