A look Back on 2022

As we begin 2023, we want to take a moment to reflect on the last year. The Idaho Foodbank is so grateful for all of the support given to help our neighbors who are struggling. In the new year we will continue to work together to lift up our neighbors and support community health all year long. Here are a few highlights from the last year:

We were honored to host the CEO of Feeding America, Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, at our facility in Meridian. We were able to show her how we have been able to increase services across the state with the larger facility and highlight the support of our generous donors who made that facility a reality. She was inspired by the commitment of so many to ensuring community members have access to the food and resources they need.
In April, hunger relief volunteers, staff, and advocates attended conferences we hosted in-person and online that included a discussion of a Healthy Pantry Framework, as well as education and partner experiences around our Hunger to Health Strategy. Organizations in different areas of the state also shared updates on some of their amazing work in their communities.
A Chefs’Affaire, The Idaho Foodbank’s premiere fundraising event, was back in-person in downtown Boise. The Idaho Foodbank in Lewiston had their first in-person A Chefs’ Affaire at the LC State Campus. These events are a way to celebrate talented chefs in Boise and Lewiston while supporting our work.
In September there was the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. It has been 50 years since the last White House Conference on Hunger, so we were excited to see this spotlight on food insecurity. Leading up to the conference, we were able to hold listening sessions with some of our neighbors in the Magic Valley who are facing food insecurity. We appreciated the opportunity to provide input prior to the conference from our listening sessions with Idahoans who have experienced hunger. The conference focused on a national strategy with five pillars to end hunger by 2030, which you can learn about here.

In October with the update of our website we were able to add a new feature that translates our website into six different languages. We also began using a real-time translation service at our facilities to communicate with all of our visitors and we have translated some of our materials into Spanish, Arabic, and Swahili.