Georgia Food Bank Association Inc

Programs: Childhood hunger: gfba entered into a strategic partnership with share our strength to launch the "feeding for a promising future - no kid hungry" campaign to increase the number of children who have access to usda nutrition programs like summer meals (sfsp), after school meals (cacfp) and increase the number of organizations participating in snap outreach to eligible families with children. In 2014, arby's foundation pledged an additional $1 million to accelerate this work. These funds were used for capital investments ($247,555) to organizations wanting to expand their feeding programs, a partnership to train school nurses with children's healthcare of atlanta, and new strategies to connect kids to food and information about nutrition. The capital funds provided 571,990 additional meals for a return on investment of $2. 61 for each dollar invested. In summer 2014, a total of 2,900 open feeding sites were operating with 600 new sites added. A total of 8,595,390 summer meals were served in georgia. Georgia was one of only 8 states in the us that saw a 15% increase in summer meals during the summer of 2014.

food procurement: secured annual $6. 75 million grant administered by atlanta community food bank from state of georgia to purchase protein/nutritious food for families with children. Successfully raised the equivalent of 1. 1 million pounds of food for member food banks with 3nd annual legal food frenzy with help from the attorney general's office and young lawyers division of the state bar of georgia. This friendly competition engaged more than 16,000 member s of the legal community in the fight against hunger and added more than 500 new donors to member food banks. Launched the inaugural georgia accounting food fight with the georgia society of cpa's to engage 52 accounting firms in 7 cities who raised the equivalent of 398,877 pounds for gfba food banks. Secured and distributed $118,896 in grant funds to food banks including $98,000 from walmart state giving to assist them in the acquisition and distribution of fresh georgia grown fruits and vegetables. In 2014, gfba's "farm to food bank" program resulted in donations of more than 2,200,000 pounds of fresh produce to georgia's food banks from georgia farmers. An additional 7 million pounds of donated produce were shared with food banks in other parts of the country, who in turn shared produce back with georgia to increase variety and product mix. Gfba's regional fresh produce solicitor worked with department of agriculture, georgia farm bureau, and georgia fruit and vegetable growers association to educate farmers about their ability to donate produce to member food banks and solicit donations of fruits/vegetables

education: gfba facilitates the sharing of best practices among and between member food bank executive directors and key staff in the areas of agency relations/capacity building, food procurement, fund raising and marketing. Using its statewide perspective, gfba is able to educate key stakeholders on hunger issues and hunger relief efforts statewide. Gfba provides a single point of contact for the public, the press, and state and federal nutrition programs/agencies wanting to learn more about hunger relief efforts in georgia. Its website www. Georgifoodbankassociation. Org is designed as a portal to educate the public about hunger in georgia, the role of gfba food banks and their network of partner agencies/pantries, and most importantly to help the pubic find the regional food banks serving their county through direct links to "get help" or "donate". Externally gfba educated the public about hunger and the role of food banks through strategic partnerships with georgia department of agriculture, georgia farm bureau, 2020 georgia, voices for georgia's children, association of county commissioners of georgia, georgia municipal association, georgia chamber of commerce.