MealConnect Start A Digital Food-Rescue Awareness Campaign

Hunger in America is growing. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment and food insecurity have soared. More than 42 million people may face hunger because of the coronavirus. According to the USDA’s latest Household Food Insecurity in the United States report, more than 35 million people in the United States experienced hunger in 2019. Hunger can affect people from all walks of life. Millions of people in America are just one job loss, missed paycheck, or medical emergency away from hunger. But hunger doesn’t affect everyone equally-some groups, like children, seniors, and black, Indigenous, and other people of color, face hunger at much higher rates. Hunger also most often affects our neighbors who live in poverty.

“MealConnect” is a food rescue digital platform from Feeding America that helps to bring awareness to food rescue efforts. Feeding America created the MealConnect program to make it easier to donate food to community agencies and food banks.

As the platform approaches a milestone of 3 billion pounds of saved food, which corresponds to nearly 2.5 billion meals, the campaign serves as a call to action for food merchants to donate leftover food products through MealConnect’s simple process.

MealConnect’s process includes several steps:

• Retailers share surplus food items to the platform using a mobile device or desktop PC to initiate the donation
• Then MealConnect’s algorithm offers the donation to community food banks and pantries
• Once a food bank or pantry accepts, the retailer receives an email confirming the pickup time.

As a volunteer, you’ll receive a text message alert that donated food is available at your local grocery store. If you’re available to rescue the food (typically Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM-11:00 AM), you’ll use your own vehicle to pick it up and deliver it to a nearby partner program. Foodshare partners with over 90 local grocery store locations to make sure good, surplus food gets to the plates of people in need. Last year, Foodshare volunteers and partner programs rescued almost 2 million pounds of food. Be a hero, sign up today!

Source: https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america