In September 2024, The Global FoodBanking Network, in partnership with Foodbank Australia, hosted the GFN Global Summit 2024 in Sydney, Australia. As the world’s largest gathering of food bankers and their partners, the Summit was a multi-day gathering of food banks with leaders, experts, and practitioners working across the global food system.
Since 2006, the Food Bank Leadership Institute (FBLI) has been an essential event for practitioners and experts interested in deepening understanding about how the food banking model alleviates hunger, creates healthy communities, and reduces food waste. GFN is excited to announce the next generation of FBLI, the GFN Global Summit 2024. While food banking will continue to be at the core of the event, this shift reflects the opportunity to expand audiences, deepen partnerships, and advance new ideas for food banks and others working across the food system.
The world is increasingly recognizing the interconnection between the food system and the climate crisis. Climate change today is an undeniable reality that is disrupting crops, food production, supply chains, and economies, as well as food security and human well-being around the globe. In response, the world needs to identify and scale resilient and practical solutions that will turn the tide, tackling the twin challenges of food security and climate change. Food banking sits at the nexus of these challenges and solutions.
Food banks are experts at working all along the supply chain to recover wholesome surplus food—mitigating potential food loss and waste—then redistributing that food to people facing hunger. These actions provide people with food and strengthens communities, while reducing harmful emissions. This 2024 Summit explored the linkages between the food system and climate change with a focus on ideas, stories, and solutions at the local, national, and global level.
