Virtual Book Club: Reinventing Food Banks and Pantries

According to the most recent Feeding America report, Massachusetts saw the greatest percentage increase (59%) in food insecurity in the country due to the pandemic, with one in 8 people in our region facing food insecurity. Organizations like Open Table have increased the amount of food we distribute, but until we address the root causes, hunger remains an issue.

In Reinventing Food Banks and Pantries: New Tools to End Hunger author Katie S. Martin presents a model where success is measured by the lives changed, rather than the pounds of food distributed. She proposes some strategies that food pantry staff and volunteers can take to create a more welcoming and accessible client experience as well as long-term steps to resolve the underlying issues.

Many of the ideas presented in the book are already in practice or in discussion at Open Table, but some may be new. We’d love to discuss these ideas and others with you, the members of our community, to determine how we best work to solve the local food insecurity problem in the post-pandemic world.

Please join us for a virtual Book Club style discussion Tuesday, July 20, 2021 at 7pm. If you would like to join the conversation, please email us at events@opentable.org (please put Book Club as the subject). Virtual link will be sent to all participants and available here in July.