By Katie Lutz
Last month, The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN) formally launched the Asia Food Bank Incubator program, aimed at accelerating the development and scaling of food banking in the Asia-Pacific region.
Thanks to the generous support of Bank of America Merrill Lynch – APAC, Griffith Foods and The PIMCO Foundation, the three-year Food Bank Incubator program will expand technical support and other services GFN offers across the region by collaborating with eight organizations in seven countries working toward eliminating hunger and food waste in their communities.
The eight Asia Food Bank Incubator participants include:
“We are so excited to finally be able to expand The Global FoodBanking Network’s impact in the Asia-Pacific region and work alongside this incredible cohort of change-making organizations” said Lisa Moon, GFN President and CEO. “The objective of this program will be to reduce the time it takes to start a food bank and work with these organizations to reach more people facing hunger in their communities.”
The program was launched at the first GFN Asia-Pacific Food Bank Conference in Seoul, South Korea, October 21-25 at the Koreana Hotel, hosted in conjunction with the Korea National Council on Social Welfare, Korea Ministry of Health and Welfare, and Korea Foodbank. The launch event convened Incubator participants, current network food banks, corporate partners and industry leaders to discuss the fundamentals of food banking over the course of the three days.
“We are so thankful at Foodbank Vietnam that The Global FoodBanking Network created this opportunity for us to join the Asia Food Bank Incubator program,” said Nguyen Tuan Khoi, Founder & CEO, Foodbank Vietnam. “During the week we not only learned valuable skills that we will take back and implement at the food bank, but we also connected and built relationships with other food banks in Asia and will continue to collaborate. We are so excited to see where this program takes us.”
Currently, more than 60 percent of the world’s undernourished live in the Asia-Pacific region. GFN identified Asia-Pacific as a high-priority region while developing the Incubator program due to these high levels of poverty and malnutrition.
Over the course of the next three years, GFN will work closely with Incubator participants by providing technical assistance and access to GFN’s suite of training resources, as well as developing key milestones and programs. During the Incubator program, participants will ultimately be moved toward GFN Certification.
“What a privilege and honor to have been accepted as part of this inspiring and knowledge-filled experience. From the well-founded counsel and advice from The Global FoodBanking Network, the experiences of our colleague organizations in the region, to the networking and camaraderie, the summit was for us an occasion we are so very thankful to have attended,” said John Milligan, CEO, Foodbank Canterbury.
Following the Incubator launch, GFN hosted the first Asia-Pacific Regional Summit with support from the Archer Daniels Midland Company, bringing together 8 delegates from existing GFN member food bank organizations; Foodbank Australia, Green Food Bank China, Feeding Hong Kong, Korea Food Bank, The Food Bank Singapore and Taiwan People’s Food Bank Association. The Asia-Pacific Regional Food Bank Summit focused on issues related to surplus food procurement and food donation policies across the region.
