Developing a Food Bank Nutrition Policy: A Guide to Procure Healthful Foods

Food banks are important community organizations that provide charitable food assistance to food insecure households. Food banks rely heavily on donated foods and beverages and government supplied foods for their inventory. Until recently, there were no nutrition guidelines for food banks to follow in deciding the types of foods and beverages to accept, procure, and distribute. Recently, Feeding America, the national network organization of food banks, issued a nutrition framework to provide food banks with nutrition criteria for identifying healthful foods and beverages. Food banks are seeking direction in applying nutrition guidelines and generally how to move toward nutrition-focused food banking. This course will explain the importance of this shift toward healthier 'charitable' foods and guide participants through the process of developing food bank nutrition policies to help food bank staff and others in making nutrition improvements in food inventory.

In practice, the process of developing a nutrition policy takes several months, yet this course runs for just 6 weeks. The course is designed to engage participants in real world examples of challenges that food banks encounter with the opportunity to develop skills and competencies before embarking on an actual nutrition policy with a food bank.