9/24/2015 – Warwick Post: Two Girl Scouts spent 24 hours fasting and living in cardboard boxes to get an up-close look at the plight of hungry and homeless Rhode Islanders, and built a Silver Award project — signifying the second-highest achievement for Girl Scouts — recounting their experiences. Julia Gervais and Brooke Messier, both 14, whose troop is part of the Girl Scouts of Southeastern New England headquartered in Warwick, also volunteered at the Rhode Island Food Bank and area food pantries, which “really opened my eyes because hunger and homelessness are so much bigger than I originally believed they were,” as Gervais wrote in her report.
Author: tmdgroup@yahoo.com
Edesia
88 Royal Little Drive, Providence, RI 02904
Unique non-profit organization that manufactures specialized foods that change lives. Each year millions of “miracle packets” leave our Providence, Rhode Island factory and make it into the hands of malnourished children all over the world. Edesia’s range of high-quality products are distributed by large humanitarian organizations such as UNICEF, the World Food Programme, the US Department of Agriculture, and the US Agency for International Development. With a staff of 75 hailing from over 23 countries, Edesia has produced enough peanut-based, ready-to-use therapeutic and supplementary foods to reach over 3 million malnourished children in 46 countries.
Assistance SNAP
Department of Human Services 57 Howard Avenue Cranston, RI 02920 401.462.5300
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Formerly known as Food Stamps, helps individuals and families buy food. If you are working but are still struggling financially to buy food and provide nutritious meals, you may be eligible for SNAP. You do not need to be participating in other DHS programs to receive SNAP benefits. You can be unemployed or working, preparing for work, receiving a pension, or homeless.
Holiday Food Drive & Open House
Rhode Island Community Food Bank
200 Niantic Avenue, Providence, RI 02907 401.942.6325
Contact: Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Schiff
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All are welcome at this festive food drive! Bring donations of non-perishable food, tour the Food Bank (with a special “Seek and Find” picture game for the kids!) and sample recipes from our Community Cooking program. Enjoy live music by the VoX: Voices of Christmass, teen singer/songwriter Emeline Easton and the Wheeler School Jazz Ensemble. Kids get to try out sorting fresh produce for food pantries and participate in a nutrition project . Download Flyer
Mobile Markets Bring Affordable Produce To Low-Income Neighborhoods
9/11/2015 – Rhode Island National Public Radio: A new initiative of the Rhode Island Public Health Institute at Brown University aims to bring more fresh fruits and vegetables into low income neighborhoods. The initiative, called “Food on the Move,” will create a mobile farmer’s market, sending trucks full of fresh produce into low income, urban neighborhoods and housing complexes throughout Rhode Island. There, shoppers who receive food stamps, or SNAP benefits, can buy two dollars’ worth of produce for every one SNAP dollar. That’s thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. More
Farm Aid
501 Cambridge Street Third Floor Cambridge, MA 02141 617.354.2922 Toll free: 800.FARM.AID
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We know that to keep family farmers on the land we have to increase the number of people buying their good food. From the annual concert event that features family farm food and unites farmers, artists, and concerned citizens, to our inspiring and informative television, radio, mail and web campaigns (including our HOMEGROWN.org website), Farm Aid is building a powerful movement for good food from family farms.
Farm Fresh Rhode Island Farm to Food Pantry
Farm Fresh Rhode Island
1005 Main St. #8130 Pawtucket, RI 02860 401.312.4250
Co-Executive Directors Sheri Griffin and Jesse Rye
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Builds upon all of the great local food infrastructure that Farm Fresh has already been engineering. Now that we have farmers market and trucks in place, it’s so simple to get fresh food to the neediest in our communities. That’s what a community-based food system is all about. Farmers in California are not going to be donating to those who are hungry in Rhode Island. Rhode Island farmers play a critical role in our communities, and we can use farmers markets and Market Mobile as a platform to make sure their harvest reaches Rhode Islanders in need.
Farm to Food Pantry reinforces our belief that the Rhode Island we want to live in – with vibrant farms, healthy communities and easy access to fresh food – is all within our reach. There are so many more win-win opportunities all around us. They just require a little tinkering.
Food on the Move
Brown University School of Public Health
Box G-S121-8 Providence, RI 02912 401.863.6565
Email Website
Grew out of the Fresh to You Market, a program found to be effective in increasing fruit and vegetable consumption of children from low income families. This program is currently being evaluated in worksites and subsidized housing projects as part of two federally funded research projects. Food on the Move was created to address the major barriers to eating more fruits and vegetables that were identified through a needs assessment in Rhode Island. These barriers include: the high cost of fresh fruits and vegetables, little time to shop due to hectic lifestyles, and limited access to and poor quality of fruits and vegetables in low income neighborhoods. Thegoal is to sustain and extend the Fresh to You Markets using a ‘Robin Hood’ model whereby the profit from sales at worksites will help to cover the cost of bringing the markets into low-income, ‘food desert’ neighborhoods.
Rhode Island Food not Bombs
Providence: Facebook Email
Kent County: 401.996.8858 Facebook Email
Arranges the collection of produce, bread and other food that can’t be sold from grocery stores, bakeries, and produce markets. They put this food to the side and we pick it up at a scheduled time. This way we build personal relationships with local food providers and are able to collect larger amounts of better quality food with more regularity. In some cities the groceries and bakeries are not willing to help and we may seek some of our food from dumpsters but this is not generally the case. Volunteers can show grocery workers the law showing they will not be liable if they donate the food.
