This Free Grocery Store is Trying to Address Atlanta's Food Access Problems

The Lagos Food Bank Initiative works to address hunger and malnutrition among those in need and reduce food waste. It offers several programs including temporary food assistance, nutritious meal interventions, and family farming among others. Since it was founded in 2016, the organization has expanded its efforts and now has 17,000 volunteers across the country and has helped more than two million people.

The Resource Connect program began in 2019 and works to connect families with children in need with necessary resources like food, diapers, and school supplies. The point is to address the factors outside the doctor’s office that affect children’s health. In the three years since it opened, Resource Connect has helped 4,235 patients get social services.

Common Pantry provides assistance to those facing food insecurity, and recently opened a new facility to offer housing information and assistance with job searches, government benefits, health care and other services. The Pantry also started a nutrition program, teaching people about the science between food and health, as well as how to cook healthy meals at home.

Produce prescription programs like FreshRx Oklahoma and Recipe4Health are taking off as ways to combat heart problems and other diseases like diabetes. These programs provide free fruits and veggies to participants, helping increase access to healthy foods and address food insecurity. Research over the course of a year shows Recipe4Health participants significantly lowered their cholesterol and food security rates among participants dropped from 59% to 48%.

Double Up Food Bucks offers dollar-for-dollar matching of up to $10 daily for fresh fruits and vegetables for those enrolled in SNAP. The program addresses affordability issues that historically prevented people from accessing fresh, nutritious foods. Double Up Food Bucks works with more than 250 grocery stores throughout the state to provide widespread access to fresh produce.

Project Bread is a local food-assistance organization that provides medically-tailored meals to people in need, specifically those with diseases or ailments that worsen with poor nutrition. Organization coordinators can send grocery store gift cards and kitchen supplies or sign the patient up for cooking classes or nutrition counseling. In its first two years, the program served 5,000 patients, and a recent evaluation found that 25% were no longer food insecure after participating for six months.

Improving community nutrition requires making healthy food accessible and affordable. In Westlake, California, LaRayia’s Bodega provides healthy food at a convenience store price point of five dollars or less. Donations of misshapen fruit help to reduce costs. The bodega operates as part of the Love Without Reason nonprofit, which operates a meal program.

The Greater Cleveland Food Bank, and other food banks across the country, are working to provide more comprehensive services for the food-insecure people they serve; those services include partnering with community organizations to help with employment, health care, and housing.

The CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot Program rewards healthy shopping choices with a dollar-for-dollar instant rebate at participating grocery stores. 74,000 people in 44 of California’s 58 counties benefit from the program.

FarmRx, or the Food as Medicine Prescription Program, provides free fruits and vegetables to low-income families in the area. Provided through the Athens Farmers Market, FarmRx is a 6 month program that not only improves food access but also provides cooking and nutrition education to participants, along with free health checkups. In 2021, the program reported an 85% completion rate.