Community Spirit and Generosity Makes Continued Outreach Possible

When a food outreach program’s normal method of operation involves hundreds of volunteers gathering to collect, sort, and distribute food, enthusiastic community support is key to implementing new ways to feed the hungry during a time of social distancing. Food For Neighbors is very thankful to have received such support. It changed its May “Red Bag” food collection event from a physical one to a virtual one, and kind neighbors donated enough money to equal just over 1,600 bags of food.

“We started the campaign last week,” shared Karen Joseph, Founder of Food For Neighbors. “Amazing! We will be able to continue to support teens and their families into the summer months. We have an awesome and generous community.”

Karen and Mark Joseph founded Food For Neighbors to address teen hunger at schools where many students had few reliable food sources other than their weekday school breakfasts and lunches. While various programs had recently begun to address this concern at the elementary school level, they were too limited to address the large middle and high school populations.

In 2016, Food For Neighbors began filling this gap via its “Red Bag” program, which allows individuals to shop for nonperishable items at their convenience and to set them on their doorsteps for collection approximately five times per year. Volunteers organized by neighborhoods then collect the food and bring it to a central location, where it is sorted and then delivered to 21 participating schools. At the schools, volunteers package the food, and social workers and parent liaisons distribute the packages to students on a weekly basis. Now, this process is made possible via an innovative virtual “Red Bag” collection, used to purchase, sort, and distribute food in a safe manner.

Food For Neighbors invites all community members to make donations at any time. To learn more, please visit the Food For Neighbors website.