Giving with Impact - Addressing Hunger in America: ‘There’s very little resiliency left in the system.’

BARBARA WHEELER-BRIDE:  Hi, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Giving With Impact, an original podcast series from Stanford Social Innovation Review developed with the support of DAFgiving360™. I’m your host, Barbara Wheeler-Bride, an editor at SSIR. In this series, we bring together voices from across the philanthropic ecosystem to have a conversation about what’s at the heart of achieving more effective philanthropy.  

In this episode, we’re going to discuss how food pantries and anti-hunger organizations are providing critical food and nutrition to people in need, and hear from two leaders who are on the front lines of fighting hunger in America. We’ll also discuss some of the unique funding challenges charitable organizations that distribute food or meals are facing right now, and how donors can support these causes and help to make up for funding shortfalls.  

Our guests are Kyle Endres, the Executive Director of We Don’t Waste, a food recovery organization working with communities across the Denver Metro region; Vince Hall, the Chief Government Relations Officer at Feeding America; and Alisia Robin, Senior Manager of Strategic Partnerships and Non-profit Outreach at DAFgiving360. Thanks to you all for being with us today.  

Kyle, I want to start with you. Can you tell us a bit about We Don’t Waste and your approach to feeding people in the Denver community?  

KYLE ENDRES:  Sure. Thanks for having me. We Don’t Waste is a food recovery organization based in Denver, as you mentioned. And our goal is that food goes to people instead of landfills and is accessible to all. So we partner with over 200 different food donors in the Denver Metro area, and over a hundred different non-profits. And we basically take surplus food and redistribute it to communities that need it in partnership with these other organizations. So that could be food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, schools, daycares, really any sort of non-profit that’s providing free food. We also operate our own mobile food markets serving high-need food desert neighborhoods. And then we also just recently launched an app where volunteers can help us with food recovery in their personal vehicles. For those smaller donations, people can help distribute food to other non-profits, as well as to community members who are facing food insecurity.  

BARBARA:  What do people who turn to We Don’t Waste for help find on your shelves or in your markets?  

KYLE:  Yes, so we have quite a mix. Generally it’s about 50 to 60% fresh food, which includes produce, protein, dairy, whole grains, but we do receive some shelf-stable items too. And we really try to customize what we give to our partner non-profits and our community members who come to our mobile markets based on their needs. So some organizations, the populations they serve are really focused on fresh foods. Maybe the pantry has refrigeration, so we can give them fresh produce or protein. And then some organizations, they don’t have much storage space, they don’t have refrigeration, so we try to give them shelf-stable items. The food that we get, we get for a variety of reasons. It could be confusion over date labeling. It could be something that was overproduced or over-ordered or mis-ordered. So it really just depends. Our goal is just keeping food out of landfill. So we’ll kind of take anything that food donors can give us, and we’ll just find a home for it.  

BARBARA:  What kind of response are you seeing to the mobile app that you mentioned that allows individuals to give?  

KYLE:  We’ve seen a lot of interest. So we’ve got a lot of volunteers that are interested, and right now we’re trying to build up the food donor list. Because basically what we found is that our trucks, which are 18-foot refrigerated trucks, they were going to pick up all these really small donations, and it just wasn’t efficient from like a gas standpoint, a staffing standpoint. The idea was that volunteers could help us with that because it might just be a couple pans of lasagna from an Italian restaurant. It’s been really popular and we’re looking to grow it  

BARBARA:  And I think it’s really at the heart of your mission, right, to keep food out of landfill. So food that would maybe be wasted or thrown away, you really are rescuing it even in small amounts, but letting it have a greater impact in the community.  

KYLE:  We want every bit of food to be rescued. It’s a logistical challenge, really. It’s not that we can’t find a home for it, it’s just how do we pick it up in an efficient way? How do we prioritize our trucks versus our volunteers and it is very mission-aligned, and we’re really happy that we were able to find a tool that could help us do that with our volunteers.  

BARBARA:  Zooming out from Denver and thinking about the national issue of hunger in the United States, can you tell our listeners about Feeding America’s role in hunger prevention?  

VINCE HALL:  Absolutely. Thank you for having me, Barbara. The Feeding America Network stretches across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. There are over 200 partner food banks that work with over 60,000 faith-based and community charity organizations to operate pantries, meal programs, etc. There are partner state associations that engage in policy advocacy at the state level. And then of course there are the almost 50 million people in the United States who access the charitable food system every year. The Feeding America national organizations supports communities in multiple ways. We source food from farmers, from government agencies, manufacturers, retailers, really every point in the food supply chain where food might go to waste. Feeding America food banks work to make sure that that food instead gets to people facing hunger. We provide financial support from donors to network members, such as food banks and pantries, to help them address hunger and the root causes of hunger that hold the conditions of poverty in place that lead to hunger. So we try to do that in the unique context of their own community’s needs and priorities. And then my team here in Washington, DC is largely responsible for advocating for federal policies that will improve food security, and we partner with other organizations, other voices, and mobilize the voices of millions of Americans to influence Congress’ and the White House’s decisions at key moments of opportunity for legislation that can help to alleviate the causes of hunger, such as the cost of living, the cost of healthcare, unemployment, wages, etc. So all in all, the Feeding America network is able to provide almost 6 billion meals a year across the United States to people facing hunger, while at the same time we’re actively supporting federal nutrition programs and public policies that can address the root causes of the problem.  

BARBARA:  Vince, in the first few months of this year, we’re seeing a lot of uncertainty about government funding, and support for hunger and nutrition programs, and specifically funding for food banks and non-profits that play a critical role in providing food to communities, as Kyle mentioned earlier. Could you talk a bit about what was cut, and can you tell us about the impact it’s having on Feeding America and your local partner organizations?  

VINCE:  Certainly. This is a very difficult time for food banks. The need at charitable food distribution sites is at a record high. It’s the highest levels we’ve seen as a percentage of the population in over a decade. High grocery prices are causing millions of people to turn to food banks to help meet their monthly budget equation. About 40% of people who came to food banks during the pandemic were coming for the first time, and many of them have never been able to stop using the food bank in order to meet the high cost of not just the food that they eat, but their rent and their electricity and their gasoline, all of their monthly essentials. So two-thirds of Feeding America food banks have reported rising demand in this last two months as individuals and families work to overcome these difficult challenges.  

And I should say that food banks are experiencing this higher demand while resources are shrinking. The fundraising that occurred for food banking during the pandemic has declined quite significantly, and less food means fewer choices for neighbors. We’re in a position of having to address a difficult federal budget situation. Many state budgets are facing shortfalls. And so government commodities account for about 23% of all food distributed by Feeding America food banks, and commodities means healthy, fresh produce, it means proteins like chicken and fish and beef, it means shelf-stable foods that can be transported long distances and help to solve problems in remote rural communities. And that 23% of the food that food banks count on from the federal government is becoming harder and harder to find, in part, because Congress has not enacted a new farm bill, which was a legislative challenge that they were supposed to complete in 2023. We find ourselves now almost halfway through 2025, and we’re still awaiting action on a farm bill, which would serve to strengthen federal nutrition programs, and invest in things that help food banks meet the rising need in their communities.  

BARBARA:  I have one follow up on the Farm Bill. Since there hasn’t been action taken, does that mean funding has stopped, or funding just stays the same? What kind of happens in that lapse where we are now?  

VINCE:  Yeah, unfortunately, it means funding stays the same. And there were programs that have been innovated over the last few years that have now run out of funding because they were being funded with temporary funds in anticipation that the Farm Bill would provide permanent funding sources. So the local food purchase assistance program that partnered local farms with food banks to reinvigorate local food systems and to help bring healthy fresh produce to families in need has essentially been terminated. And that has come about because the Farm Bill has been delayed more than two years. There’s also been a series of investments that began in President Trump’s first term, continued through President Biden’s term, of using discretionary funds at USDA to supplement the emergency food assistance program, which is a vitally important program that delivers food to the loading docks of food banks and helps them to meet the needs in their communities. But that temporary source of funding, that interim use of this temporary funds is not moving forward. And again, a farm bill is the place where we could permanently increase the size of the emergency food assistance program to ensure that not only do food banks have enough food to serve the line, but they also have a stable and predictable delivery schedule that isn’t subject to the whims of discretionary funding.  

BARBARA:  The conversation we’re having about funding feels like a good time to invite Alisia to join us to talk about donor-advised funds, and how donors can step up at this moment to help organizations like We Don’t Waste and Feeding America. Alisia, what are the advantages to non-profits of donations from a DAF account?  

ALISIA:  Thanks for the question, Barbara, and the opportunity to join you and Kyle and Vince to discuss this important topic of hunger in America today.  

And I’m going to begin by just giving you all a quick definition of what a donor-advised fund is. A donor-advised fund, or a DAF, is like a charitable investment account for the sole purpose of supporting charitable organizations that donors care about. They’re an easy to use and really tax-efficient way to give. And donors can fund these DAF accounts with cash or securities or other assets, and those contributions are then invested, with a goal of growing over time, ultimately making more money available to the non-profits that donors want to support. DAFs enable donors to contribute a wide range of assets, and there are a lot of non-profits out there, especially smaller ones, that lack that capacity, to accept these kinds of complex assets and turn those into cash that the non-profits can use. However, DAFs like DAFgiving360 can handle that liquidation easily, and non-profits can then receive a straightforward cash grant, often larger than what they would have received via a direct donation due to the tax efficiency of the DAF vehicle.  

And donors with DAF accounts are often very strategic and intentional with their giving. That can create many benefits for the non-profit sectors. As an example, during an economic downturn, or emergencies, like national disasters, or the current situation that Vince was just talking to us about, donors already have these funds. They’re set aside. They can make a donation quickly when it’s needed most. Donors also have that option to set up a recurring grant from their account, which provides non-profits with ongoing support. And just as an example, in 2024, one out of every three grants from DAFgiving360 was set up as a recurring grant.  

And then just the last thing I’ll say here is that donors don’t have to specify an exact purpose for their grants from their donor-advised fund. All they need to do is name the non-profit and the amount that they would like to give. And this allows organizations that flexibility to deploy funds where they’re most needed. And 72% of the grant recommendations from DAFgiving360 in 2024 were unrestricted funds, allowing non-profits to focus on mission.  

BARBARA:  What advice do you have for non-profits working with donor-advised funds?  

ALISIA:  There are some really simple things that non-profits can do to develop relationships with donors who choose to give through a donor-advised fund, and to enhance their fundraising effort. One example is that simply adding donor-advised funds as a funding option on donation pages, right alongside checks and credit cards, and also in fundraising communications can go a long way to tapping into those funds. At DAFgiving360, we do offer a fundraising toolkit for non-profits that contains tips for raising funds and growing your donor base, and it contains actionable insights and examples that non-profits can use today. We also host a number of webinars, and we publish articles around donor behavior, which is really helpful for non-profits to understand when they’re putting together their fundraising strategies.  

All of these resources and more are available to anybody who wants to use them on our public website, which is DAFgiving360.org under the For Charities tab.  

BARBARA:  Thanks, Alisia. Vince, how do you see Feeding America’s partners working to overcome some of these funding challenges?  

VINCE:  Well, partners are turning to local communities to try to backfill the resources that are no longer available through the federal government. In every community across the United States, there is a Feeding America food bank working with tens of thousands of faith-based partners, charitable partners to reach into every community, including every rural community. So in some cases, these food banks have stepped up the very work that Kyle was talking about earlier, being able to rescue food from every point in the supply chain, from local retailers, to local food distributors. In some cases, they have stepped up the sourcing of food from farmers who have unfortunately not found foreign markets available to them in the current policy environment. And so in some cases the food bank is able to offset the cost of harvesting a crop, and shipping and packaging that crop. And that helps the farmer because they get an accelerated tax deduction for donating edible food, but they also don’t have further cost exposure to harvesting, packaging, and shipping the food. So for food banks, it’s an opportunity to get healthy, fresh, wholesome produce for a fraction of the cost of buying it in the open market, but also, they have the opportunity to invigorate and invest in local farmers to help those farmers to survive the current economic circumstances, and build deeper relationships.  

And then finally, I just have to say a word about donors and that wonderful information about donor-advised funds. I mean, there are more people stepping up to support local food organizations like food banks today than we’ve seen since the pandemic, and it is vitally necessary and deeply, deeply appreciated by the 47 million people, including 14 million children in this country who struggle with hunger on a regular basis.  

BARBARA:  Kyle, I know there are many challenges associated with food insecurity, including the ability to access nutritious food in the neighborhood where you live, or lacking transportation or means to get to a grocery store or farmers’ markets nearby. I wonder if you could speak to how your organization works with people to overcome some of those challenges, or how you’re addressing underlying concerns related to food access.  

KYLE:  Great question. Our goal is to truly meet people where they’re at, and that’s not just their physical location where they live, but also what foods they’re comfortable with, what organizations they’re comfortable with, where they’re comfortable receiving food. And so our entire model is really to get food out into the community. So rather than have one central location where people come, we give food to our partner non-profits. So that might be your local food pantry, that might be the soup kitchen that is near you. And so we’re really trying to get food out into the community, which, again, helps with access, because if you don’t have transportation to get to, say, We Don’t Waste’s facility, you can go to your local food pantry, receive food from We Don’t Waste there, as well as the food that they receive through other sources, like Feeding America, which is an amazing resource for all of these organizations across our city, our state, our country. And so we’re really trying to partner with the non-profits that we work with, give them the foods that their clients want, give them the foods that they can distribute safely. Food safety is really important. And then our mobile markets are another way that we are meeting people where they’re at. Those kind of started back in 2019 when we realized there were parts of the city we weren’t reaching because there wasn’t a food pantry we could give food to, for example. So we mapped all of our partners and looked at what areas aren’t we serving, and we just decided to bring the food pantry to them. And so we partner with a local organization, a faith organization, a school, a non-profit, and we set up basically a no-cost farmer’s market in their parking lot or whatever they have available. We feel like it’s a great way to get food to people in an area that’s convenient for them. And then it also allows them to shop. So it’s not pre-packed bags or pre-packed boxes. They can shop. It provides greater dignity, it also cuts down on waste, which is our goal. If you give people a pre-packed box of food, they’re going to maybe use most of it, hopefully, but, you know, some of it they might not know how to use, or that might not be culturally relevant for them. There’s a person named Tony, who comes to one of our markets in Northwest Denver, and he actually picks up food for his elderly parents who live nearby, but they just can’t make it to the market. And so… and it’s a Japanese-American family, and they’ve told us that his parents just love all the fresh produce that we give. And sometimes we have seafood or fish, and they really enjoy that as well. It’s that shopping model, it’s that dignity, it’s what anybody would want when they’re shopping for food, whether they’re receiving it at no cost or they’re going to the grocery store, for example.  

So that’s really some of the ways that we try to meet people where they’re at and give them access to great food.  

BARBARA:  Vince, you’ve already talked a bit about the Farm Bill and some ways that Feeding America is advocating for public policy. I wonder if you could maybe talk about one or two of your top priorities right now, or even top priorities for listeners who might be interested in supporting advocacy around issues related to hunger.  

VINCE:  Sure. Thank you, Barbara. The Farm Bill authorizes for a period of five years, multiple programs that are fundamentally important for the ability of food banks to solve hunger in communities across the country. One is the Emergency Food Assistance Program, and this program essentially supports American farmers by buying crops and other farm products and shipping them directly to the loading docks of food banks, and then from those warehouses, they’re distributed out to over 60,000 faith-based and charitable organizations around the country. It really matters because donated food ebbs and flows, and you can get an abundance of one product one month and then not see that product for two more months. You might get intermittent quantities of products. And so the Emergency Food Assistance Program helps to level out those ebbs and flows. It also provides a little bit of money for storing and distributing that food, which means that we’re able to reach rural communities where the costs are significantly higher.  

And then of course there’s the SNAP program, what we used to call food stamps, and some people call an EBT program. And this program is serving 42 million Americans. It is providing nine meals for every one meal provided by the charitable food system. So the scale of impact of the SNAP program is vast and deep. And to Kyle’s point, this gives people the dignity of a shopping experience, where they can actually purchase groceries that are culturally right for their family, demographically right for their family. We know that families with aging seniors are going to buy a different mix of products than families with young kids. And there are religious and cultural needs that have to be addressed. And there’s medicinal needs that have to be addressed, and people are in different places with their health and need to be able to get access to the foods that are right for them.  

So the SNAP program unlocks that for many, many people. But the Farm Bill is an important opportunity to strengthen both programs. We can improve benefit adequacy in SNAP, so people can actually make it through a whole month. I can tell you as a former food bank CEO, we used to see people with zero balances on their EBT cards turning to the charitable food system every single month. So we want to get those benefits up so that they’re adequate to nourish families through an entire month and keep people from having to use two systems at once.  

BARBARA:  Thanks, Vince. I think it is really important to think about these bigger policy issues. And I think, too, for donors or people who are thinking about the issue of hunger to probably first think about feeding people or making sure that they have the food they need to make a meal at home. But there’s a lot of other layers and really important policies and structures that can support people who are in need, to make sure that they get the food and the nutrition that they need.  

Kyle, how does We Don’t Waste, and its partners work on social issues or social policy that’s related to hunger and food insecurity in Denver?  

KYLE:  I would say that advocacy is not our primary mission, but we also know that food insecurity isn’t going to go away just through food rescue. I mean, it’s all the stuff that Vince just talked about. There are so many facets to this. And so we try to support as many local or state policies that we can. So when there’s policies looking at SNAP, or healthy school meals, or time to eat in school, all of those things, we’re excited to be part of those. And there’s great organizations here like Hunger-Free Colorado and Food Bank of the Rockies that are driving those things forward, and we’re playing more of a supporting role, but we are on the Blueprint End  Hunger Policy Committee. We’re on a couple of city level environmental committees. And so we’re trying to participate in that because, again, we know that food rescue is not going to make food insecurity go away long-term. 

Because we’re supporting all these different non-profits that’s less money that they’re spending on food. And so that money could be going to education programs, job training, economic development opportunities. And so we kind of see that as kind of this added bonus to what we’re doing because that reduces their food budget, and then perhaps they can use that funding on other programming.  

And then we also, at our mobile markets, we try to have other partners there that can provide resources to people. So we will have sometimes Hunger-Free Colorado providing SNAP enrollments. We’ll have Colorado Pet Pantry providing dog food. You might choose to eat less so you can provide more food for your pet. And so that’s a great resource that we can provide people. We have Weecycle at every one of our markets, and they provide diapers and other baby supplies. People are coming for the food, and we know that, but can they get other supplies or resources there that can help them kind of address other aspects of their lives that isn’t just about food.  

So those are some of the ways that we’re trying to address the bigger issues. 

BARBARA:  Kyle and Vince, I have a question for both of you. And I believe, Vince, you mentioned this earlier, but how has the rising cost of food over the past years affected food banks and food pantries? How do you make up for any gaps these rising costs or the funding cuts have on your budgets?  

VINCE:  I would say we haven’t. The difficult reality is that sustained high grocery prices are continuing to drive record high rates of food insecurity across the United States, and we need to have some definitive actions taken to try to at least reduce the rate of inflation, if not to bring prices under control for food. I mean, the cost of everything in a monthly budget has gone up, and families are having to make these very unconscionable decisions about whether they buy medicine or buy food, or whether they skip paying rent and risk being evicted or pay for food. And the mathematics of their budgets are extremely challenging. And so even though people are returning to work in record numbers, we’re seeing record high demand at food distributions. Now, that’s never happened in the history of food banking. It’s always been the case that unemployment and demand at food banks have moved together. This is the first time that we’ve seen very low unemployment with very high demand at food banks. What that tells us is there’s very little resiliency left in the system, that if there is an economic slowdown, if there are a series of natural disasters, if there are changes to policies like SNAP that cause fewer people to access that program and instead turn to the charitable food system, food banks are going to be extremely hard-pressed to meet that need because they’re in a moment right now where they’re literally stretched to the breaking point and there aren’t a lot of additional resources over the horizon.  

But as Kyle will say, and I’ll say it too, that this country throws away more food every day than is necessary to solve the problem of hunger. And so we don’t have a food crisis in the United States. We have a crisis of political will. And if we can mobilize the voices of the almost 50 million people in the country who are struggling with food insecurity on a daily basis, that’s one out of every seven people, we should be able to raise the profile of this issue to the degree that in the wealthiest country in the history of civilization, Congress and the White House and our state governments will all unite and say, ‘Let’s end this problem. Let’s make sure that every child shows up to school and nourished, fit, and ready to learn. Let’s make sure that seniors can enjoy dignity in their golden years. And our service members who serve in the uniform of the country aren’t worrying about whether their children back home have enough food that day. Let’s make sure that everyone who falls down on hard times has the support they need to get back on their feet and thrive economically.  

BARBARA:  Kyle?  

KYLE:  Vince, he covered it, I think. But, you know, I think where we’re seeing is really in the demand and the need. We’re seeing increased need at our mobile markets. I think they’re up 15% from this time last year in terms of the number of attendees. Our partner non-profits are requesting more food, and more non-profits are requesting food. We’re not able to accommodate every non-profit that would like to start receiving food from us, for whatever reason, other food sources have dried up or they couldn’t purchase as much. But I think that’s where we’re seeing it.  

BARBARA:  Alisia, before we close, I wonder if you want to share any final insights for the non-profits or donors or advisors who are listening about what role they can play in the work that Kyle and Vince are doing to prevent hunger?  

ALISIA:  Yeah, sure, Barbara. And Vince and Kyle, thank you so much for highlighting how support for food pantries and food rescue service is urgent right now, and also incredibly impactful, especially in these times where we’ve got that rising food insecurity because resources are shrinking, and need is growing. And so I have just a couple of thoughts.  

The first one is that donors really can consider prioritizing those unrestricted gifts to non-profits like Feeding America and We Don’t Waste. Those flexible funds really let non-profits respond to the immediate needs that they’re seeing, like restocking essentials or expanding storage for rescued food, letting the non-profits really focus on meeting their mission.  

Second, for financial advisors who might be listening, you might want to encourage clients to leverage their donor-advised funds to support this need and any others that are close to their hearts. This not only helps maximize the tax benefits for the donor, but it also enables larger and faster gifts that food programs can use right now when demand is peaking.  

And I also want to mention that this isn’t only about giving money. Advisors and non-profits can host awareness events or volunteer days to engage donors more deeply, creating that sort of a virtual cycle, maybe, of giving and advocacy and action.  

And donors can always consider activating the five charitable Ts. They can give their time, of course. There are volunteer opportunities in the soup kitchen around the corner from where you live. They can also give talent. There are many donors out there who can offer professional skills, like grant-writing, and they can also give their treasures. We’ve talked through financial donations. They can offer their personal ties by opening doors to networks and partnerships. And also exercise their ability to give testimony by sharing stories that inspire others to act.  

And I would just close that with when each of us brings what we can to the table, we can turn that individual generosity into community transformation and help those in need.  

BARBARA:  Alisia, I think that’s a great call to action to end with. And I want to echo your thanks to Vince and Kyle for talking with us about this really important issue.  

VINCE:  Thank you for having us.  

KYLE:  Thank you.  

ALISIA:  Thanks, Barbara.  

BARBARA:  Thanks for listening, everyone. Please consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps other listeners discover the show. We hope you’ll check out more episodes in this series, as well as other podcasts from SSIR. This podcast series is made possible with the support of DAFgiving360, who played an important role in the selection of topics and speakers. We’ll talk with you again soon. 

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