News
March 17, 2023Mobile Pantries Ensure Equitable Access in Underserved Communities
Not every community we serve has a brick-and-mortar pantry, which makes it hard to provide equitable access to our neighbors in need in every ZIP code. To identify under-resourced neighborhoods, the Regional Food Bank has partnered with the Siena College Research Institute to complete a gap analysis of our service area. Using this information and with a generous grant from the United States Department of Agriculture, we launched the Mobile Pantry Program.
Mobile Pantries provide food pantry distributions to residents in communities that lack brick-and-mortar food pantries and nearby grocery stores. We deliver nutritious, well-rounded food to centralized locations in each community, working in partnership with town governments, fire houses, and community centers to host distributions. Participants select from a variety of healthy food to ensure what they receive meets their household’s needs. We currently operate Mobile Pantries in four rural, remote communities and will add 16 more sites this year. Our goal is to work with each community to establish its own brick-and-mortar location over time.
Moving forward, we plan to collaborate with other organizations to provide wrap-around services, such as SNAP application assistance, health care consultations, and connections to other essential programming.
