Kaiser Permanente Foundation of the Mid-Atlantic States Awards Generous Grant to Capital Area Food Bank

Funds "Healthy Food Access in Action" Initiative in DC's Ward 8

WASHINGTON, May 26, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Lynn Brantley, President and CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB), announced that Kaiser Permanente Foundation of the Mid-Atlantic States has awarded the CAFB a $350,000 grant to fund its "Healthy Food Access in Action" program, a two-year initiative to increase the distribution of healthy food to low-income communities in the Washington metro area. Toward that end, the CAFB will be focusing efforts in the District's Ward 8 and has already established relationships with partners to pilot this project.

The program supported by the Kaiser grant will stress the importance of a coordinated approach that combines healthy food access with the food bank's community outreach and education programs, resulting in improved health in the targeted communities.  

Brantley said, "Today, the effects of diet-related illnesses have been compounded by the rise in food prices due to our recessionary economy.  With more than 600,000 Washington metro area residents, including 200,000 children, facing hunger and malnutrition on a daily basis, it is imperative that we do everything possible to increase the quantity of nutritious fruits and vegetables that we provide to our neighbors in need.

"We have been emphasizing the importance of fresh produce for well over 15 years.  But, recently, we have expanded our fresh produce campaign which includes a new goal of distributing 15 million pounds this year.

"On behalf of those we serve, we thank Kaiser Permanente Foundation of the Mid-Atlantic States for its generous grant and providing the Capital Area Food Bank with the opportunity to undertake this healthy food access and education program."  

The program complements the food bank's strategic goal, resolved in 2010, to increase food distribution in 2011 to 30 million pounds, including 15 million pounds of fresh produce, available through community outreach programs that educate, advocate and train. The Capital Area Food Bank's experience over 31 years has shown that when healthy food is provided with an educational component, the food has a greater and longer lasting impact.

The Capital Area Food Bank, a member of Feeding America, was founded in 1980 and takes a comprehensive approach to addressing hunger by increasing access to nutritious food, initiating change through skill-building and advocacy, and creating sustainability with outreach and training for those at risk of hunger.  The CAFB is the Washington metro area's largest public, nonprofit food and nutrition education resource.

For more information, please contact:
Page Crosland
Capital Area Food Bank
202-526-5344 ext. 316
202-529-1253 fax
[email protected]

SOURCE Capital Area Food Bank