One of the most valuable parts of the food banking model is that it engages people from all sectors of the community – local volunteers and individuals, NGOs and civic organizations, local and national governments, and the business sector. As The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN) has experienced around the world, in addition to feeding tens of millions of people each year, food banks become a vehicle for building public awareness of hunger and its solutions, as well as a powerful voice in driving policy decisions that impact food security.
My trip to India last month once again reminded of the power of people from a variety of backgrounds working together to create solutions to the world’s most challenging social issues – even the daunting challenge of addressing the food security needs of more than 212 million undernourished people living in India.
Following the successful launch of the Planning Forum for the India Food Bank Network in January 2010, GFN is continuing to build broad based support and explore partnerships that will move the project from concept to action.
One of the most exciting new partnerships with the potential to accelerate action towards operation is working with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) www.crs.org. CRS has been running a USAID food distribution program in India for more than 50 years. They have built an infrastructure of 60 warehouses that supply a second tier of smaller warehouses and more than 2,000 feeding programs. This USAID program is coming to an end this year, leaving CRS with the dilemma of what to do with their existing infrastructure and the valuable services it delivers to so many people in the nine Indian states where it operates.
The emerging food bank system in India provides a timely answer to that question…
While visiting one of these warehouses in Bihar, I was pleased to find that the warehouse operates almost exactly as we would want it to in the context of food banking. The only significant difference is the source of food in the warehouse. Our focus now will be on setting up pilot sites for transition and mapping the resource base to plan for food sourcing and logistics management.
We also had very positive meetings with the National Informatics Center, the Ministry of Rural Development, and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Likewise, meetings with the International Food Policy Research Institute and prominent economist – Mr. Bibek Debroy – were quite helpful.
The success of the India FoodBank Network will in large part depend on food and grocery companies and retailers donating their surplus products. We had very positive meetings with Pepsico, All India Rice Exporters Association, Philip Morris International, and Bharti Wal-Mart. In addition, we held a group meeting with representatives of trade media, Aircel, several large NGOs and key food industry partners.
The international community is also beginning to take an interest in the project, and we met with Irish Aid and USAID during this visit.
Building broad based support, engaging local and national governments, working with other NGO partners, gaining support from food and grocery companies, and ensuring community participation – this is what it will take to make the India FoodBank Network a success.
I’m excited to return to India next month and report on the accelerating progress of the Planning Forum and the expanding network of stakeholders working to make food banks a reality in India.
