Feeding Hope in Williamson County
Last month, one of our Agency Relations Coordinators, Melanie Hager, was able to go above and beyond for a woman in need in Williamson County, Illinois. Below she shares her story. I was at Williamson County Programs on Aging conducting a CSFP training/meeting with our contact, MaryJane Fuller. She had just met with a woman and was very shook up [...]
Volunteer Spotlight: Joe Venable
Joe Venable has been coming to volunteer at the St. Louis Area Foodbank for 5 years. He brings a group of 12 -15 volunteers from Scott Air Force Base with him, and they are very appreciated in our Volunteer Center. “Whenever we see that Joe’s group is on the schedule, we know we’ve got to have a lot of work [...]
Decatur’s Farm Bill Listening Session
This year the House Agriculture Committee has hosted Listening Sessions all across the country to hear from key stakeholders as they prepare to draft and pass a new Farm Bill in 2018. The Farm Bill is a massive piece of legislation that establishes programs and appropriates funding for everything from agricultural research to crop insurance to federal nutrition programs like [...]
Dustin’s Story
As a lifelong sports fan, Dustin knows hard work and practice make perfect. That’s why he maintains a blog where he can sharpen his writing skills and work towards his dream job in sports broadcasting. A former football player and now a coach to his community’s high school football team, Dustin has plenty to write about. And when he isn’t [...]
Political, not Partisan: Signing on with other Nonprofits to Stay Accountable
We’ve signed another letter to lawmakers, but not one about safety-net programs. Let’s talk about why. Political action – what we describe at the St. Louis Area Foodbank as “advocacy” – is a critical part of what we do. We work hard to address hungry people’s immediate needs and to work towards eliminating hunger in our community, and we cannot [...]
National School Breakfast Week
This week is National School Breakfast Week, spotlighting the benefits of school breakfast for kids across the country. The School Breakfast Program (SBP) is designed to give students affordable access to food at the start of each school day, which promotes better learning outcomes as well as happier, healthier kids. Fortunately, like school lunches, school breakfast is heavily subsidized or [...]
Perryville Pillow Talk
Our neighbors in Perryville have had some rough nights of sleep, so we’re sending pillows! Early this week, we were happy to receive pallets of pillows that were donated because they were mismarked and couldn’t be sold in retail stores. We started distributing the pillows to transitional housing programs, but when we heard about the tornado emergency in Perryville, MO, [...]
Signing-On for Strong Policy
2017 brings with it enormous change to the political landscape, from a new president and Congress to new state and local leadership. While so much change can feel disruptive and unpredictable, it also opens up abundant opportunities for advocacy on behalf of the people we serve and the causes we stand behind. That’s why the Foodbank is busy at work, [...]
Make an Impact: Your Generosity Feeds Hungry People
It’s simple -- for every dollar donated to the St. Louis Area Foodbank, 97 cents go directly toward feeding the hungry. In fact, working with our network of nearly 500 partner agencies in Missouri and Illinois, the Foodbank provides food assistance to 43,000 people each week; more than 2.4 million meals per month. We are grateful for the food donations [...]
Pantry Spotlight: Pittsburg Food Pantry
The Pittsburg Food Pantry has served the residents of Williamson County in Illinois for nearly 20 years. Eight years ago, River Church, at the invitation of the Village of Pittsburg, took over the responsibility of the Pantry, and has run it from their location ever since. The Pantry is open the last Saturday of every month from 8:30 – 10:30 a.m. [...]