Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program

• SMITHFIELD, Va., July 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Smithfield Foods, in partnership with Kroger, donated nearly 30,000 pounds of protein to Feed More to fight food insecurity in Central Virginia.
• "Smithfield has a longstanding commitment to fighting hunger and nutritional insecurity," said Jonathan Toms, senior community development manager for Smithfield Foods.
• "Kroger is proud to partner with Smithfield and Feed More to address food insecurity in our communities," said James Menees, corporate affairs manager for Kroger Mid-Atlantic.
• Kroger donated 94 million pounds of surplus food to Feeding America's network of food banks and agency partners in 2021 and is committed to creating #ZeroHungerZeroWaste communities by 2025.

• For years, Cheetos has celebrated Hispanic culture's impact on society and empowered the community with Deja tu Huella, its ongoing campaign inspired by the rally cry that translates to "leave your mark."
• To kick off the program's fourth iteration, Cheetos is launching the world's first fingertip sponsorship with global superstar Becky G in hopes of inspiring others to leave their mark on everything they touch.
• In a TV commercial released today, Cheetos demonstrates how Becky G's Cheetle-covered fingertips can empower members of the Hispanic community to chase their dreams as she did.
• For more information on the Deja tu Huella program including the Uplift Scholarships, Deja tu Huella Tour and TikTok challenge, please visit Cheetos.com/DejatuHuella.

• Through their partnership, Healthix and Unite Us will provide the technology infrastructure needed to enable communication between healthcare systems and social care networks working to address unmet needs for services such as food, benefits, housing, transportation assistance, and more.
• Integrating health and social care will improve health equity across New York's underserved populations.
• Unite Us and Healthix are already collaborating in large social care networks with Public Health Solutions , which provides critical resources directly to New York City's most underserved populations.
• These networks enable policymakers to understand the impact of standardized outcomes for social care interventions, which, combined with clinical outcomes from HIEs like Healthix in New York State, provide a more complete picture of community health.

• But the past few years have made life harder for many who live there, with Black Summer bushfires, the COVID pandemic and intense flooding.
• While it’s often assumed Australia’s strong agricultural sector means we are secure, these successive disasters show the danger of this assumption.
• In Lismore, they were empty for weeks or up to four months for major supermarkets.

Shorter supply chains are stronger supply chains

• During the floods, food supply chains bent or broke.
• As a local food business owner told us:
  We are not making any money at the moment, just working to maintain customers.
• First, we must think of food as a local system rather than a linear supply chain.

Communities move fast while government often moves slowly

• In the wake of the floods, an inquiry found a worrying lack of preparedness or ability to respond by the state government.
• As one helper told the ABC:
  Everywhere is closed – that’s why we wanted to open the farmers’ market, because everyone’s out of supplies.
• Everywhere is closed – that’s why we wanted to open the farmers’ market, because everyone’s out of supplies.
• The people running local food exchanges and pop-up kitchens served and delivered food to those who couldn’t access food on their own.

Food insecurity is on the rise – and worsened by disasters

• But it’s surged even higher as the nation weathers the economic fallout from the pandemic and rising living costs.
• In 2022, Foodbank reported that one-third of Australian households had problems with finding enough to eat.
• Our study found food charities in the Northern Rivers were also disrupted by the floods.

We should build up community food networks and regional circular economies

Even before the floods, Lismore was one of the most disaster-prone areas in Australia. This won’t be the last major shock the region faces. So what can we do? Our recommendations to boost food resilience include:
• And last year’s floods in South Australia cut the vital Trans-Australian railway, which transports 80% of WA’s food.
• If we harness community networks, innovative solutions and drive policy change, we can build a more resilient and secure food system for the Northern Rivers – and beyond.
• In 2023 this includes the Northern Rivers Community Foundation and Plan C. Sheriden Keegan receives funding from Plan C and Northern Rivers Community Foundation.
• Somayeh Sadegh Koohestani works for Institute for Sustainable Futures and received funding in 2023 from Northern Rivers Community Foundation and Plan C.