Community Food Bank Inc

Health and Food Programs: Our Health & Food initiatives are broad efforts to increase access to healthy and locally grown, sustainable foods to prevent negative health outcomes and strengthen regional food systems. We continued food distribution efforts at our Resource Centers, mobile distributions, community farm, and through our network of 250+ partner agencies across our 5-county service area of Cochise, Graham, Greenlee, Pima, and Santa Cruz Counties. Caridad Community Kitchen distributed 423,148 meals to seniors and the broader community throughout southern Arizona this fiscal year. We continue to serve our communities through our two major USDA programs: The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP)and the Commodities Supplemental Food Program (CSFP). We provided 500,390 (TEFAP) and 87,772 (CSFP) food boxes through these two USDA programs. For food-insecure populations, lack of access to healthy food often results in a wide variety of negative health outcomes like increased incidence and prevalence of diabetes, poor management of certain behavioral conditions, and social isolation. Our health and food efforts work across our service area to provide nutritious, locally sustainable foods to those who are experiencing hunger and adverse health outcomes. Our community health-care partnerships help advance regional measures and have the potential to inform national policy.

Educational Programs: We believe resources and opportunities are inequitably distributed between communities, and that education can help build a bridge out of poverty toward improved socio-economic conditions. We continued to provide both virtual and in-person training on topics like environmental stewardship, gardening, nutrition, social connection through skill building, engagement, career readiness, and leadership development. At Caridad Community Kitchen, we provided 7,045 hours in culinary training to 18 students. All our efforts are grounded in support of our mission to build healthy, hunger-free communities.