Food and grocery products are donated and/or received from local food companies, government agencies, food drives, from large and small donors, special purchases and from Feeding America.

Each food bank is responsible for picking up the food and returning it to their facility. Costs are significant. Food banks must maintain trucks and staff to get the food to the food bank.

Once the food bank receives a shipment of food, it inspects for quality and sorts and re-packs the food and grocery products for distribution to member agencies throughout its service area. This includes refrigerated storage for perishable items like milk and eggs. Collectively, Alabama food banks distributed 48 million pounds of food to agencies and outlets in 2011.

Member agencies and outlets, such as soup kitchens, shelters and food pantries, receive food from food banks and then provide food assistance to people in need. Alabama Food Banks work with more than 1,700 such community partners across the State.

Our eight Food Banks feed hundreds of thousands hungry people each year, including children, and those numbers continue to grow as a result of the recent economic recession and high unemployment rates.