Over 40 years ago, Food Lifeline started as an organization with the mission of providing food assistance to the community by serving as a clearinghouse for donated and government-provided food. As we grew, our mission, commitment, and programs evolved to become much more. We grew beyond a focus on the logistics of sourcing, storing, packing, and distribution of food to an organization that deeply understands the importance of both ensuring people have adequate access to food, while working to address poverty as a leading driver of hunger.
In the last few years, Food Lifeline has embarked on a further iteration of our work. We know that hunger and food insecurity are complex and inextricably linked to poverty and its root causes, which include systemic racism, and social injustice. It is not enough to provide food today. To solve hunger we must partner more collaboratively with our community of stakeholders, donors, volunteers, affinity organizations, and most importantly people with lived experiences of hunger. We believe in the power and necessity of collectively and radically changing the systems, programs, and practices that cause and perpetuate and profit from food insecurity and hunger in our communities.
Our Board of Directors, alongside staff, embarked on a journey to make this commitment as clear as possible. The work is encapsulated in the Board-adopted Equity Statement. We will not waver from this guiding principal as we move forward in our effort to eradicate hunger. There are many ways to be involved, from organizing, donating time and expertise as a volunteer, and donating financial resources. We invite our many engaged community members to organize with us in the many ways that they are able to effect change.
