Midwest Food Bank, hosted Brandon Lipps and Tim English, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in late October. Brandon is the Deputy Under Secretary for the USDA Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services, and Tim is the Midwest Regional Administrator. Mr. Lipps reached out and requested a tour of the MFB location in Normal, Illinois after reviewing our annual report <link>. He was especially interested in learning how the food gathered by MFB gets to and impacts individuals.
"Brandon is highly focused on moving families forward," said Jada Hoerr, MFB Development and Relations Director. "He has compassion for the food insecure and wants to collaborate to support their needs"
MFB has partnered with the USDA this year in the Farmers to Family Food Box program, which re-directed food to people who need it as normal food supply chains were disrupted due to COVID 19 (Read about it here). The nutritious food boxes contained meat, dairy, and produce and helped meet increased demands at food pantries across the United States that get food from MFB. It also provided farmers with an outlet for their products.
The USDA Farmers to Families Food Program was authorized for $3 billion and MFB expects to distribute 1 million food boxes by the end of 2020. We were honored to host Brandon Lipps and Tim English and look forward to finding ways to partner with the USDA in the future.
